President Obama is not trying to use an executive order to close the detention facility housing terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, according to a report Monday.
Reuters, citing sources close to deliberations within the Obama administration, reported that officials have determined that using executive order would not represent a viable strategy to close the prison, which has been used to house terrorist suspects since just after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The White House has not publicly ruled out using executive action or any other options to close the military prison. Obama has expressed a desire to work with Congress to implement his plan to close the detention facility, which would involve moving dozens of terrorist detainees not cleared for transfer to U.S. prisons.
However, current law bars the military from using federal funds to move prisoners at Guantanamo to the United States, and Republican lawmakers have opposed Obama’s plan to shutter the facility given current terrorism concerns. Annual defense legislation--which Obama has threatened to veto--has also extended prohibitions on moving Guantanamo detainees to the United States in fiscal year 2017.
However, Obama is reportedly not pursuing the option of using executive order to surpass the ban, which will make his effort to close the prison more difficult.
Reuters reported:
White House lawyers and other officials studied the option of overriding the ban but did not develop a strong legal position or an effective political sales pitch in an election year, a source familiar with the discussions said. "It was just deemed too difficult to get through all of the hurdles that they would need to get through, and the level of support they were likely to receive on it was thought to be too low to generate such controversy, particularly at a sensitive (time) in an election cycle," the source said.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, encouraged Obama to close Guantanamo and move detainees to the United States, if law permits, before she left her post as secretary of state in 2013. Polling has shown that Americans oppose Obama’s efforts to close the military prison.
The latest revelation comes one day after a gunman opened fire on a gay nightclub in Orlando, killing at least 49 people and wounding dozens others in an attack that federal officials are investigating as an act of terrorism. The attack was the worst domestic terrorist attack since 9/11.
The Obama administration has ramped up efforts to close Guantanamo in recent months, moving prisoners approved for transfer to foreign countries. The prison population has been reduced to 80, and officials plan to move most of the 30 remaining detainees approved for transfer to other countries in June and July, according to the Associated Press.
Many Republicans have been outspoken about their opposition to Obama’s efforts to close the prison. They have pointed to an intelligence community report released earlier this year showing that approximately 30 percent of prisoners released from Guantanamo have been confirmed to have resumed terrorist activities or are suspected of doing so.
Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo when he first assumed office in 2009.