Since coming back from the Thanksgiving break, the Senate has been working on the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013. However, the administration has a whole host of complaints about the bill as it is currently constructed and has promised to veto it unless their concerns are addressed. Of interest to you, their veto threat extends to the language on Gitmo.
Detainee Matters: The Administration strongly objects to section 1031’s restrictions on the use of funds to transfer detainees from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to foreign countries. When he signed past versions of this legislation, the President objected to the restrictions carried forward by section 1031, promised to work towards their repeal, and warned the Congress that the restrictions on transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay to foreign countries would in certain circumstances interfere with constitutional responsibilities committed to the Executive Branch. Since these restrictions have been on the books, they have limited the Executive’s ability to manage military operations in an ongoing armed conflict, harmed the country’s diplomatic relations with allies and counterterrorism partners, and provided no benefit whatsoever to our national security. The Administration continues to believe that restricting the transfer of detainees to the custody of foreign countries in the context of an ongoing armed conflict interferes with the Executive’s ability to make important foreign policy and national security determinations, and would in certain circumstances violate constitutional separation of powers principles. The Administration also continues to oppose the prohibition on funding to construct, acquire or modify a detention facility in the United States to house any individual detained at Guantanamo, which shortsightedly constrains the options available to military and counterterrorism professionals to address evolving threats. The restrictions carried forward by section 1031 were misguided when they were enacted and should not be renewed.
In tandem with this, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report yesterday that said that U.S. prisons can handle housing the Gitmo detainees.
Perhaps the administration is willing to take a stand to close Gitmo since they no longer have to face reelection. The problem was never the administration, though. The problem was that Congress is full of bedwetters who pee their pants whenever a wingnut says, “Boo!”
