NOVANEWS
Though president Obama recommitted to closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in May, the first Senate hearing in five years held to discuss precisely that topic was notable for the lack of any White House witnesses.
RT
In May during a major speech outlining US defense topics, including ongoing drone strikes in Afghanistan, Yemen and other regions of the world, Obama addressed the administration’s renewed commitment to push for cleared prisoner transfers out of Guantanamo, with the aim of eventually closing down the prison.
On Wednesday, the Senate held its first hearing since 2009 on whether to shut down Guantanamo, though according to an aide for Senator Dick Durbin who spoke with The Daily Beast, the Obama administration was invited but declined to send a witness to bolster its case to shut down the facility.
Both Thursday’s hearing as well as Obama’s renewed effort to close Guantanamo comes as detainees continue on a hunger strike in protest of their indefinite detention as well as conditions at the prison. The force-feeding of the hunger strikers has in particular become a magnet for criticism by those who argue for the facility’s closure and a growing number of human rights advocates.
“I believe it violates international norms and medical ethics. And at Guantanamo, it happens day after day and week after week,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said at the hearing of the continued force-feedings.
Feinstein, who requested in April that the White House resume cleared prisoner transfers out of Guantanamo, has in the last few months become one of the most visible proponents of drawing down operations at the center.
Both Senators Richard Durbin Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence committee, urged the administration to outline a process for closing the detention center in July. The two senators also urged Obama to direct the Department of Defense to stop conducting large-scale force feedings at the detention center.
Only a few days before the request made by the two senators a judge had ruled that only Obama himself had the power to intervene in halting the force-feeding of hunger strikes.
Of the 166 prisoners who still remain in the camp, 86 have already been cleared for release. However, owing to political opposition in Congress, early attempts by the Obama administration through the Department of Justice during its first term to transfer prisoners to other locations failed.
The notable absence of any witnesses on the part of the White House in Wednesday’s hearing also indicates that the White House is not behind a plan to repatriate prisoners back to their countries, according to sources who spoke with The Daily Beast.
“I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the administration could be doing more to close Guantánamo,” Durbin said on Wednesday, going on to explain that he and Feinstein had met with “senior White House officials” to discuss how to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo.
“The president has been clear that he wants Guantánamo closed, and the national security waiver provides an avenue to start clearing transfers,” said C. Dixon Osburn, the director of Human Rights First’s law and security program. “If the White House believes it does not have the authority, they should tell Congress what authority they need and make it to the Hill and say so.”
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