The next move in the Guantanamo clusterfuck may be a signing statement asserting the administration’s right to determine prosecutions:
While the signing statement and the executive order would leave some room for Obama, they would do little to bring his policy goals to fruition. Over the last two years, Congress and the administration, working separately and in conflict, have woven together a complicated set of categories, policies and restrictions that make it difficult, if not impossible, to close Guantanamo.
What the White House once saw as bipartisan support for shuttering the prison soon became a bipartisan effort to thwart the administration’s plans.
The spending measure effectively bars the president from prosecuting any detainees in federal court or conducting military commission trials on U.S. soil. The bill makes it increasingly difficult to transfer detainees to foreign countries, even if the administration deems them safe to release. And it complicates the review process Obama plans in the executive order for nearly 50 detainees the administration has designated as too dangerous to free.
We’re down to 174 prisoners in Guantanamo, and it looks like they’ve all been effectively sentenced to life in prison.