{"id":1770,"date":"2013-06-26T15:14:46","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T21:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2013-06-26T15:14:46","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T21:14:46","slug":"senate-defense-spending-bill-reflects-growing-consensus-to-close-guantanamo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/senate-defense-spending-bill-reflects-growing-consensus-to-close-guantanamo\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Defense Spending Bill Reflects Growing Consensus to Close Guantanamo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Human Rights First
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

Washington, D.C.<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Human Rights First today welcomed the release of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by the Senate Armed Services Committee, a bill that reflects a growing bipartisan consensus to shutter the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay by providing the president with greater flexibility to transfer detainees.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenate Armed Services Committee should be commended for tackling the Guantanamo problem head on and crafting a bill that reflects the growing support for closing Guantanamo. It\u2019s unconscionable that detainees who have long been cleared for release by the intelligence and defense agencies have been stuck because of political gamesmanship, a problem this bill tries to remedy,\u201d said Human Rights First\u2019s Dixon Osburn.\u00a0 \u201cThose who committed heinous crimes should be tried and convicted.\u00a0 Those who have been cleared for release should be sent home or to a third country immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senate defense spending bill provides the Secretary of Defense greater latitude to determine who \u00a0may be sent home or to third countries by determining that the transfers are in the national security interest and that steps have been taken to substantially mitigate any risks associated with the transfer.\u00a0 The bill also reduces obstacles to transferring Guantanamo detainees to the United States for criminal prosecution or continued detention.\u00a0Since 9\/11, U.S. federal courts have convicted nearly 500 terrorism suspects. None of those has ever escaped from federal prison and no federal detention facility has ever been sabotaged. Osburn notes that any comprehensive plan to close Guantanamo should ensure that convicts at Guantanamo will remain incarcerated in secure U.S. prisons.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal courts are more muscular and agile than military commissions.\u00a0 The federal courts have more criminal laws to enforce than the military commissions at Guantanamo. Federal courts also have more precedent upon which to rely to ensure smooth adjudication, unlike the circus at Guantanamo,\u201d observed Osburn.<\/p>\n

The Senate Armed Services Committee released its defense bill amidst growing bipartisan efforts to find solutions to closing the facility.\u00a0 Senators McCain and Feinstein joined Chief of Staff Denis McDonough two weeks ago at Guantanamo and pledged support for closing the prison.\u00a0 While the House of Representatives recently voted against an amendment that would have called for a comprehensive plan to close Guantanamo, it was the first time the House had debated such an amendment.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Obama Administration announced the appointment of Clifford Sloan to be Special Envoy for Closing Guantanamo at the State Department.\u00a0 The administration is expected to announce the appointment of his counterpart at the Pentagon soon.\u00a0 Human Rights First notes that President Obama should not wait for legislation to act now in transferring detainees cleared for release.\u00a0 Current law, as Senator Levin recently noted in a letter to the President, provides the Secretary of Defense authority to issue a national security waiver to the most onerous certification requirements, easing the path to transfer.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuantanamo has been stuck for too long, and justice should be delayed no further. The American people deserve better. The president should exercise his full authority to shutter the facility and close this shameful chapter in our nation\u2019s history,\u201d said Osburn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human Rights First click here for original article Washington, D.C.\u00a0\u2013 Human Rights First today welcomed the release of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by the Senate Armed Services Committee, a bill that reflects a growing bipartisan consensus to shutter the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay by providing the president with greater flexibility to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Camp_x-ray_detainees.jpg?fit=135%2C220&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1772,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions\/1772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}