Dern it: Obama Restarts Bid to Close Guantanamo - Plan Calls for Speeding Up Detainee Transfers, Kick-Starting Drive to Shut Prison; Hunger Strike Has Increased Pressure
From The Wall Street Journal:
The Obama administration is set to restart transfers of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. officials said, kick-starting a long-stalled drive to close the prison.
In a speech Thursday, President Barack Obama will reassert his case that closing Guantanamo is crucial to U.S. counterterrorism goals. While he isn't planning to detail how to speed up transfers from the prison, officials said the president in coming weeks plans to lift the administration's prohibition on sending detainees to Yemen.
The president also is set to lay down the broader outlines of his administration's approach to efforts to fight al Qaeda and its affiliates, including through the use of unmanned aircraft strikes.
Ahead of the speech, the administration told Congress in a letter Wednesday that four Americans have been killed in drone strikes, the first official acknowledgment of the U.S. deaths by the government.
Attorney General Eric Holder wrote that only Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric killed in September 2011, was specifically targeted. The others included Mr. Awlaki's son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, and Samir Khan, an al Qaeda propagandist, both killed in Yemen; and Jude Kenan Mohammad, killed in Pakistan, who was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most-wanted list for supporting terrorism.
The administration's restrictions on Yemen stemmed from a rising threat from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as well as Yemen's record under its previous government in holding prisoners or monitoring their whereabouts. The cutback also followed a thwarted airline bomb plot in December 2009 by a Nigerian militant with links to Yemen who concealed explosives in his underwear.
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Also see article in The New York Times.
The Obama administration is set to restart transfers of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. officials said, kick-starting a long-stalled drive to close the prison.
In a speech Thursday, President Barack Obama will reassert his case that closing Guantanamo is crucial to U.S. counterterrorism goals. While he isn't planning to detail how to speed up transfers from the prison, officials said the president in coming weeks plans to lift the administration's prohibition on sending detainees to Yemen.
The president also is set to lay down the broader outlines of his administration's approach to efforts to fight al Qaeda and its affiliates, including through the use of unmanned aircraft strikes.
Ahead of the speech, the administration told Congress in a letter Wednesday that four Americans have been killed in drone strikes, the first official acknowledgment of the U.S. deaths by the government.
Attorney General Eric Holder wrote that only Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric killed in September 2011, was specifically targeted. The others included Mr. Awlaki's son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, and Samir Khan, an al Qaeda propagandist, both killed in Yemen; and Jude Kenan Mohammad, killed in Pakistan, who was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most-wanted list for supporting terrorism.
The administration's restrictions on Yemen stemmed from a rising threat from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as well as Yemen's record under its previous government in holding prisoners or monitoring their whereabouts. The cutback also followed a thwarted airline bomb plot in December 2009 by a Nigerian militant with links to Yemen who concealed explosives in his underwear.
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Also see article in The New York Times.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 5:55 AM
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