White House denies considering executive action to close Guantanamo

The White House on Friday denied a report that President Barack Obama is putting together options for executive action to close the controversial U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in defiance of congressional wishes. The Wall Street Journal, citing administration officials, reported that the White House was “drafting options” to close the facility by overriding a ban put in place by Congress that prohibits prisoners from being brought to the United States. Obama has vowed since his 2008 presidential campaign to close the prison camp, which critics say violates U.S. principles by keeping detainees locked up without trial.

… We are not drafting options to override the law.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden

Whereas most of Obama’s other executive orders came in response to legislative inaction, the president would have to defy an explicit congressional ban on prisoner transfers. But he has never actually flouted the law by sending prisoners to the U.S. Instead, he has continued to reduce the detainee count in Guantanamo by getting foreign governments to take them off his hands and, in the most controversial case, by exchanging five Taliban prisoners for the release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl earlier this year.

Gitmo Americas