Why Is It So Hard to Close Guantanamo?

President Obama said he'd close the prison camp, but Congress is standing in the way

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

One of President Obama's first acts as president was to order the closing of the famous prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the end of the year. But Congress may not make it so easy for him. Senate Democrats said yesterday they would strip $80 million from a war funding bill meant to be used to close the prison, leaving Obama with no money to move forward. Both political parties have demanded a more detailed plan for what would happen to the approximately 240 prisoners held at Guantanamo: nobody wants detainees to end up in their own district. Joining The Takeaway is Vijay Padmanabhan, Professor at Cardozo School of Law and formerly an attorney adviser in the State Department with a responsibility for detainee issues.
"Why are [Guantanamo] detainees so much more dangerous than ordinary criminals in terms of being detained in prison?"
—Former State Department adviser Vijay Padmanabhan on the release of Guantanamo Bay detainees

Guests:

Vijay Padmanabhan

Hosted by:

Andrea Bernstein

Contributors:

Sitara Nieves

Comments [2]

Carl

Put the new MAX security prision in ALsaka. Sarah will be glad to help her country, right? It will be bleak & cold & awful, so the conservatives will be happy - and it will be close to Russia, so those left-wing commies running the govenment will also be happy.

May. 20 2009 10:27 AM
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Hugh Sansom

We robbed these detainees of their lives, tortured many of them, killed some of them. And now we're wringing our hands over where they go?

The detainees have seen _all_ of their rights violated. We owe them. If an American were wrongly imprisoned and deprived of all rights for 7 or 8 years, that person would have a right to compensation.

And your guest, Vijay Padmanabhan, is a blithe liar when he picks the case of the so-called 'twentieth hijacker'. How many people were labeled the 'twentieth hijacker'.

To pick the (possible) worst case as the sample case is sheer sophistry.

Revolting, disgusting, shameful.

Every day I hear people like Vijay Padmanabhan or Barack Obama apologize for American atrocities, I feel like renouncing my citizenship and moving abroad.

May. 20 2009 09:14 AM
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