Stymied by Congress so far, the White House is considering issuing an executive order to indefinitely imprison a small number of Guantanamo Bay detainees considered too dangerous to prosecute or release, two administration officials said on Friday.
No final decisions have been made about the order, which would be the fourth major mandate by US President Barack Obama to deal with how the US treats and prosecutes terror suspects and foreign fighters.
One of the officials said the order, if issued, would not take effect until after the Oct. 1 start of the upcoming fiscal year. Already, Congress has blocked the administration from spending any money this year to imprison the detainees in the US — which in turn could slow or even halt Obama’s pledge to close the Navy prison in Cuba by Jan. 21.
The administration is also considering asking Congress to pass new laws that would allow the indefinite detentions, the official said. Both of the officials spoke on Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the still-tentative issue publicly. The possibility of an executive order was first reported by ProPublica and the Washington Post.
“A number of options are being considered,” one of the officials said.
Asked if the detainees would be indefinitely held overseas or in the US, the official said: “There’s not really a lot of options overseas.”
Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union Washington office, says the organization strongly opposes any plans for indefinite detention of prisoners.
“We’re saying it shouldn’t be done at all,” he said on Friday.
Without legislative backing, an executive order is the only route Obama has to get the needed authority.
In a statement on Friday night, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell cast doubt that Congress would approve funding for transferring or imprisoning detainees in the US without detailed plans on how it would work.
Lawmakers this month blocked US$80 million the Obama administration had requested for transferring the detainees. Without the money, Obama’s order can’t be carried out.
“Bipartisan majorities of Congress and the American people oppose closing Guantanamo without a plan, and several important questions remain unanswered,” McConnell said.
He said Obama demanded the transfers “before the administration even has a place to put the detainees who are housed there, any plan for military commissions, or any articulated plan for indefinite detention.”
McConnell added: “The defense budget request for fiscal year 2010 includes a similar funding request, so the Senate will consider this matter again in the near future.”
Obama’s order would also only apply to current detainees at Guantanamo — and not ones caught and held in future counter-insurgent battles.
There are 229 detainees currently being held at Guantanamo. So far, 11 are expected to be tried in military tribunals, and at least one — Ahmed Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused in two US embassy bombings a decade ago — has been transferred to US for prosecution by a civilian federal courts in Manhattan.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion