WSJ: Obama Considering ‘Dramatic Use Of Executive Power’ To Close Guantanamo

Editorial Cartoon by Talal Nayer, 8/28/13

President Obama launched Air strikes against ISIS (aka. ISIL) and now begins a new unilateral actions to close GITMO and to bring terrorists into the U.S.  He has already traded DITMO detained terrorist for an American military deserter.  If Obama achieves the below reported action, he will open the door to bringing in ISIS detainees who by their deeds evidence that they would rather die in the pursuit of beheading American infidels.  The American people on both sides of the political spectrum are dissatisfied with Mr. Obama's performance as President and he just keeps piling on new aspects of his agenda which continually appears to place Americans at risk. Recently, he allowed the admission of people from Ebola ridden countries, before that it was a major invasion by illegal aliens across our Southern borders, and a multitude of other negative actions to long to list for this article.  Makes one wish that there " wiggle room" under the Constitution to put this guy on an permanent all expenses paid 2 year golf vacation? Below is the latest news of the President's attempt to override the restrictions that Congress has put in place regarding GITMO.

The Wall Street Journal reports today, “The White House is drafting options that would allow President Barack Obama to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by overriding a congressional ban on bringing detainees to the U.S., senior administration officials said. Such a move would be the latest and potentially most dramatic use of executive power by the president in his second term. It would likely provoke a sharp reaction from lawmakers, who have repeatedly barred the transfer of detainees to the U.S. . . .

“Administration officials say Mr. Obama strongly prefers a legislative solution over going around Congress. At the same time, a senior administration official said Mr. Obama is ‘unwavering in his commitment’ to closing the prison—which currently has 149 inmates detained in connection with the nation’s post-9/11 war on terrorism—and wants to have all potential options available on an issue he sees as part of his legacy.”

The Journal notes that this is part of an ongoing pattern of this White House attempting to circumvent Congress and the law through executive actions. “The White House has sought to make executive actions a centerpiece of its policy agenda, in areas including the minimum wage, antidiscrimination rules and, potentially, immigration. House Republicans, in response, are seeking to sue Mr. Obama, saying he overstepped his legal authority in bypassing Congress. Unilateral action ‘would ignite a political firestorm, even if it’s the best resolution for the Guantanamo problem,’ said American University law professor Stephen Vladeck. Republicans are sure to oppose it, while Democrats could be split, he said.”

As the WSJ points out, “The core obstacle standing in the White House’s way is Congress’s move in 2010 to ban the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. That legislation was passed after the administration sparked a backlash when it proposed relocating detainees to a maximum-security prison in Thomson, Ill.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has been a critic from the beginning of President Obama’s ideological determination to close Guantanamo without regard to the potential harm to national security.

Two years ago, when the Obama administration purchased the Illinois prison, despite a law preventing them from doing so, GOP Senate Leader McConnell said, “Congress has repeatedly rejected the Obama administration’s effort to use taxpayer funds to purchase this prison. It is clear that the funding law that Sen. Durbin voted for and President Obama signed does not suddenly authorize what Congress has repeatedly denied. . . . [T]here is overwhelming, bipartisan opposition to the President’s plan to transfer terrorists from the secure detention facility at Guantanamo bay into the United States. Terrorists don’t deserve the same legal rights as the Americans they’re targeting. We should be focused on stopping terrorists, not defending them. And Americans would rather their tax dollars be spent preventing attacks from terrorists, than spent bringing them into their cities and towns as the Obama administration has repeatedly tried to achieve.”

Moreover, Leader McConnell has long argued that the detention facility in Guantanamo is the best place to keep captured terrorists. As he said last year when the Obama administration brought another captured terrorist directly to the U.S., “More than four years have passed since President Obama articulated promises made as a junior United States Senator on the campaign trail into a series of Executive Orders which have served to weaken the ability of our nation's intelligence community to find, capture, detain and interrogate terrorists serving al Qaeda and its affiliates. . . . What has not changed since the issuance of the President's Executive Orders is that terrorists working to attack the United States are enemy combatants, and if captured should be placed in military custody where they can be interrogated. The decision of the President to import [another combatant] into the United States solely for civilian prosecution makes little sense, and reveals, yet again, a stubborn refusal to avoid holding additional terrorists at the secure facility at Guantanamo Bay despite the circumstances.  At Guantanamo, he could be held as a detainee and fulsomely and continuously interrogated without having to overcome the objections of his civilian lawyers.”

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