Two and a half months after Obama Administration officials indicated that they were preparing to “speed up” plans to let detainees cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay actually return home, officials have a new excuse not to do so.
Fresh off of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s visit to DC, at which he pressed President Obama to release the detainees, suddenly the focus on a huge plot in Yemen has officials saying that any plans to do so are indefinitely “on hold.”
Of course in the two and a half months between then and now there was no indication that officials were actually considering any serious releases of detainees in the first place. Now they just have a new excuse.
It’s particularly noteworthy that Hadi’s visit came after the first drone strikes aimed at the plot were launched but before it went public, giving Hadi a chance to feign “pressing” the US for the detainees’ release shortly before the excuse would come to life.
