I Guess This Means They’re Not Closing Guantanamo Bay After All

CIA Director Leon Panetta says that if Osama bin Laden is ever captured, he’ll be held at Gitmo:

What would the government do if Osama bin Laden, the FBI’s most-wanted terrorist for more than a decade, were captured?

(…)

When faced with that question yesterday during a Senate hearing, CIA Director Leon Panetta said the administration probably would send bin Laden to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Administration says it remains committed to closing the prison at Guanatanamo Bay. but it’s been more than two years now since the President signed an Executive Order ordering the facility closed and, still, it remains open. Moreover, there have been almost no concrete steps taken to shut it down and Congress remains adamantly opposed to any plan to transfer the prisoners held there to the United States.

My guess is that Guanatanamo Bay will still be open on the day Barack Obama stands for re-election and, if he’s re-elected, it will remain open on the day he leaves office in 2017.

FILED UNDER: National Security, Terrorism, US Politics, , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Herb says:

    “My guess is that Guanatanamo Bay will still be open on the day Barack Obama stands for re-election and, if he’s re-elected, it will remain open on the day he leaves office in 2017.”

    My guess is that his Republican opponent in 2012 will have no difference of opinion here and may even make vague noises about “doubling” Gitmo and maybe making even making it the biggest GEOGroup ICE detention center in the…ahem….country.

  2. Lol says:

    My guess is herb realizes the significance of Gitmo while Obama now realizes it too….ahem…

  3. Patrick T. McGuire says:

    “The Administration says …”

    Blah, blah, blah.

  4. Alex Knapp says:

    @LOL and Patrick –

    Congress refused to authorize funds to close Gitmo and transfer the prisoners. There is literally nothing Barack Obama can do to close it at this point.

  5. Davebo says:

    There is literally nothing Barack Obama can do to close it at this point.

    Alex, you know that, I know that and Doug knows that.

    So his post is:

    A: Parody?

    B: Partisan?

    C: An excellent example of intellectual dishonesty?

    Of course it could be all three. It’s really gotta suck being Doug these days.

  6. DCrat says:

    Who cares? He said it in a campaign and the statement served its purpose. It showed that Bush was an imperialist who tortured Muslims. It got Obama elected.

    Then came the “We won” moment. From then on, we don’t have to do what we said. We don’t have to allow gay marriage, we dont have to close gitmo, we don’t have to pull out of afghanistan,

    Damn, its good to be king!

  7. DCrat says:

    There is literally nothing Barack Obama can do to close it at this point.

    Thats crazy, he can sign an executive order or as he learned from Nancy Pelosi he can “DEEM” it closed. Now that our govt has matured the power to DEEM things to make them just happen.

    It takes money to run Gitmo, they can just stop signing the checks!