Pentagon chief Ashton Carter told reporters Thursday that as long as Guantanamo Bay is open, it will be “a rallying call for jihadi propaganda,” and admitted to dispatching teams across the country to scout locations for a substitute “War on Terror” prison.
The remarks confirm reporting over the last week, which said that department staffers were reviewing military facilities in Hanahan, S.C., and Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. as potential alternatives.
“This does not mean that either of these sites will be chosen,” Carter cautioned, noting that the department “will also be assessing other locations in coming weeks.”
He called it “another concrete step forward.”
With 116 detainees still imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, President Obama is running out of time to fulfill a 2008 campaign promise to close the facility before he leaves office. Even if he’s successful, critics may argue that although the president upheld the letter of his promise, he broke the spirit of it by simply moving and renaming the notorious facility.
Although 52 prisoners have been cleared for transfer, most of the rest have been deemed by national security officials too dangerous to be released.
“We cannot in fact close Guantanamo until we find a solution to the second portion of the Gitmo population,” Secretary Carter said, adding that those individuals “should remain in law of war detention” indefinitely.
“I therefore want to complete a responsible and realistic and security-focused plan for an alternative defense detention facility in the United States for that second population,” he said.
Although the President could likely use his constitutional powers to unilaterally shut down Guantanamo and transfer prisoners to the United States, he has for the most part operated within legislative restrictions placed on him by Congress.
Lawmakers skeptical of the President’s plans, have consistently succeeded in passing legislation to prohibit the closure of the facility.
Despite the setbacks, Carter said he intends to continue to work with legislators on the matter.
“The facility surveys will provide me, the rest of the President’s national security team, and congress with some of the information needed to chart a responsible way forward and plan so we can close the detention facility at Guantanamo and this chapter in our history once and for all,” he said.
Carter himself, however, has reportedly come under fire for dragging his feet on approving transfers of cleared detainees.
An anonymous official told The Daily Beast this month that Carter was “definitely under pressure” and that the White House, “would like to see more regular signatures.”
Asked by reporters about the matter on Thursday, Carter rejected any notion that the administration was leaning on him.
“I’ve approved the transfer of several detainees and will continue to do so when appropriate,” Carter claimed.
