Obama Signs Bill That Forbids Closing Gitmo, Insists He Will Ignore Provision

Despite Promises, No Sign Gitmo Will Actually Close

On Friday, President Obama signed yet another annual defense bill which explicitly forbids closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, leaving a pledge to close the site, made on his first day in office, unresolved.

Despite this, President Obama insisted that he will “do everything I can” to close the site, which apparently did not include not signing anything that bans closing the site.

Obama did accompany the signing with a statement insisting that anything he views as violation of his constitutional powers, which includes the Gitmo provision, would be ignored.

Yet the president has made statements to that effect with previous bills that also forbade closing the site, and has so far not actually made a serious effort to close the facility, and indeed has at times blamed Congress for not having done so.

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.