Obama’s Gitmo Closure ‘Plan’ in Shambles

Despite Official Claims, President Seems to Have No Plan Left

President Obama is still planning to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. That’s the official position at least but a year after missing his original self-imposed deadline and some 18 months since he’s made any meaningful efforts toward that end, he’ll have to forgive most Americans if they’re pretty skeptical.

The initial “plan,” which was to submit a vague proposal to close the facility to Congress then praise Congress for rejecting it, seems to be right and formally dead now, and Congress has passed several measures since rejecting even the notion of allowing its closure.

So while officials keep insisting there’s a plan in place, the White House is officially mum on what it is, and the evidence suggests there simply isn’t any plan left, and that the administration doesn’t want to admit that keeping one of their first post-inauguration promises is completely out of the realm of possibilities.

Indeed, President Obama has gone from banning the military tribunals to formally embracing them, and is about to issue an executive order formalizing permanent detention without trial for a number of the detainees. If anything it seems the notion of closing the facility fell out of favor in his own mind before it did in Congress.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.