Trump to Write Executive Order to Send ISIS Prisoners to Guantanamo Bay
Trump to Write Executive Order to Send ISIS Prisoners to Guantanamo Bay
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February 9, 2017
President Trump is putting the final touches on an Executive Order that will direct the Pentagon to send ISIS detainees to the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
The Obama administration had long looked at Gitmo as a blight on the world stage and terrorist recruitment tool, and promised to close the prison during his presidency.
It’s ridiculous. Imagine we had done the same during World War II. Sending Nazis and Imperial Japanese soldiers back to their home country in the hopes that they wouldn’t take up arms against America again? Then imagine a world in which World War II was lost.
On the campaign trail, Trump took a different view, vowing to fill the prison that Obama did his best to shut down.
“I watched President Obama talking about Gitmo, right, Guantanamo Bay, which by the way … we are keeping open,” he announced, “and we’re gonna load it up with some bad dudes, believe me, we’re gonna load it up.”
Guess what? Another campaign promise is about to be kept.
Via Foreign Policy:
The Trump administration is finalizing an executive order that effectively tells allies and Islamic State fighters alike: Guantánamo is open for business.
The imminent directive temporarily bars the transfer of any current detainees, and instructs the U.S. military to bring any new detainees — explicitly including ISIS militants — to Guantánamo, according to a
draft of the executive order, which is expected as soon as this week. The draft directive was first released on Wednesday by
The New York Times, and Foreign Policy independently confirmed the details with current and former officials.
The draft order apparently reads:
Subject to further direction from the President and consistent with the requirements of law, the Secretary of Defense shall maintain and continue to use the detention facilities at the U.S. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, for the detention of enemy combatants captured in the armed conflict described in section 2 of this order, including such individuals captured after the effective date of this order.
Section 2 describes terrorist groups as “al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces, including individuals and networks associated with the Islamic State.”
The order also scales back reviewing whether the United States should bring back torture or reopen CIA “black sites.”
Still, the New York Times reports that while several changes have been made to the order, “the plan to add Islamic State detainees to the Guantánamo population has remained constant.”
Trump’s predecessor released 201 of 242 prisoners originally held at Gitmo when he assumed office, despite warnings that the recidivism rate for these terrorists could be as high as 30%.
The President responded to Obama’s mindless policy pertaining to Guantanamo Bay, saying “there should be no further releases from Gitmo.”
“These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield,” he said.
Finally we have a President who will remove them from the battlefield and fill the prison at Guantanamo Bay back up to levels at which it belongs.
