Congress has been pretty successful at cutting off most routes for the Obama administration to shut down Guantanamo. I keep wondering what would happen if Obama just ordered the military to let all of the remaining detainees go free by the end of the year unless Congress provides for something else, and then tells Congress that it can either let those 70 "high level detainees" go free or pass legislation authorizing some alternative to Guantanamo.
Obama will never do it. Even just the threat of releasing the high level people is pure political poison. And there's always a chance that Congress would just pass veto-proof legislation to keep them in Gitmo indefinitely, causing the offshore prison facility to become even more entrenched. But I think that kind of threat to let them go or else is the only way that Obama has a plausible chance to close the facility down before the end of his term.
Obama will never do it. Even just the threat of releasing the high level people is pure political poison. And there's always a chance that Congress would just pass veto-proof legislation to keep them in Gitmo indefinitely, causing the offshore prison facility to become even more entrenched. But I think that kind of threat to let them go or else is the only way that Obama has a plausible chance to close the facility down before the end of his term.
