December 13, 2013 6:22 pm

Bill could repatriate half of Guantánamo Bay prisoners

By Richard McGregor in Washington

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More than half of the 160-odd prisoners still held at Guantánamo Bay could be repatriated under new legislation before Congress, more than a decade after the military prison’s establishment following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The House of Representatives passed provisions contained in the annual Pentagon funding bill this week which removed many of the barriers to detainees being sent back to their home countries.

The Senate is expected to pass the bill next week, giving the White House much greater flexibility to handle a controversial issue which it has shied away from tackling head-on for much of Barack Obama’s presidency.

“All the signs are that the White House is taking this issue more seriously than they did before,” said Jennifer Daskal, of American University in Washington and formerly a Department of Justice lawyer.

Mr Obama campaigned to close Guantánamo Bay when first running for the White House in 2008 but hit powerful opposition in Congress and largely backed off.

The new proposals will not close the prison, at a US naval base in Cuba. It is still being used for the trials of the 9/11 conspirators and others charged with terrorist attacks against the US, which will take years to complete.

However, the relaxation of the rules allowing the administration to repatriate prisoners held for more than a decade without being charged or facing trial marks a change in the hard line that Congress had adopted against advocates of reform.

Congress had previously demanded that the administration certify that any detainees released from Guantánamo not return to “the battlefield”, which the White House considered an impossible standard to meet.

Congress had also effectively prevented any repatriations to Yemen, where the bulk of the detainees come from.

However, in recent months, the administration has revived a system of reviewing detainees to allow the defence secretary to authorise their return to their home countries without such onerous conditions.

The White House also lobbied Congress to pass the more relaxed repatriation provision in the Pentagon funding bill and appointed a new team of advisers to provide a road map for the facility’s eventual closure.

All the signs are that the White House is taking this issue more seriously than they did before- Jennifer Daskal, American University in Washington

The protracted fight over Guantánamo, and the refusal of Congress to allow any of its detainees to be tried in the US, or even transferred to the country for imprisonment, has made advocates of the detainees sceptical that any changes will come quickly.

Ramzi Kassem, of City University of New York and a lawyer for a number of Guantánamo prisoners, said the language in the Pentagon funding bill was “an improvement”.

“But ultimately, it will all boil down to political will – if they don’t continue to signal it is a priority for the White House, then it will not happen. Releases will keep happening at a glacial pace,” he said.

Many of the detainees had previously been cleared for release under both the administration of George W Bush and Mr Obama but held up by Congress.
Under the new rules, they will have to be cleared again through the recently established parole system, which could add substantial delays, unless the White House circumvents the process.

“All of these developments are a direct result of the hunger strike that started earlier this year, went into the summer, and now seems to be picking up again,” Mr Kassem said.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8731806c-641b-11e3-98e2-00144feabdc0.html