A top Democrat in the Senate pressed the Obama Administration to put forward its proposal to shut down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.
In an op-ed published Wednesday in The New York Times, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), said that Congress should assist in the effort by removing provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that block prisoner transfers.
“Senator McCain has called on the White House to deliver a plan to close Guantánamo. I join with him,” Feinstein wrote. “In particular, we need a proposal for bringing detainees to the United States and holding them securely for as long as necessary.”
The timing of Feinstein’s plea is critical. Congress is taking another whack at passing an NDAA—an annual defense policy bill that often sets rules for dealings at the prison. President Obama vetoed the first version earlier this month over disagreements about Pentagon funding levels, but he also noted his objections to the Guantanamo measures.
“Congress now has a chance to revise those limitations,” Feinstein noted in her op-ed.
House Republicans, at least, intend to keep the anti-transfer language in its latest version of the NDAA, according to a Tuesday report in The Hill. Armed Services Committee chairman, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has claimed that Congress’ maneuvering on Guantanamo is a result of the administration’s hesitation to release a closure plan.
“The President, if he can come up with an approach that can get support, then I don’t think anybody’s just pining to keep the detention facility open forever,” Rep. Thornberry told Politico in June. “But you’ve gotta get people’s support that you’ve got a handle on the issues related here, and he has not been able to do that.”
Thornberry’s counterpart in the Senate, Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) has been more explicit in his demands from the White House.
“Congress is simply asking the executive branch to explain where it will hold those set for trial, how it will continue to detain dangerous terrorists pursuant to the laws of war, and how it will mitigate the risks of moving this population,” his office said in a June statement. “If the administration can provide answers to these basic questions to the satisfaction of the American people, then congressional restrictions on the movement of these detainees will be lifted.”
Scout teams from the Pentagon have been reviewing sites in the US that could serve as a replacement facility for Guantanamo. The administration, however, has been mum on when it plans to release a detailed shutdown strategy.
“There obviously is more work to be done in this regard,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters last week. “And rather than having Congress impede our efforts, we would welcome the contributions of members of Congress to at least just get out of the way so that we can get this important work done on behalf of the American people.”
In her op-ed Wednesday, Feinstein imported her colleagues to just that by “lift[ing] the current ban on transfers to the United States so detainees can be tried in federal criminal courts and held in federal prisons.”
“There’s no reason to think a Guantánamo detainee is any more likely to escape from Supermax than any other federal prisoner. It hasn’t happened before, and there’s no reason to think that would change,” she added.
The most recent transfer out of Guantanamo Bay, Ould Abdel Aziz, was released at the end of October to his home country of Mauritania. He was detained at the facility for 13 years without ever being charged with a crime.
There are 112 detainees still being held at the prison.
