Gitmo and Other matters

++The Closing of Gitmo remains a goal of the Obama Administration after all these years.President Obama has turned to Pope Francis for him to use his clout with countries to resettle detainees as a humanitarian gesture.

++In this year's Defense Authorization Act, President Obama added a very precisely worded "signing" statement where he argued that legislative restrictions on resettling the detainees were an intrusion on his executive powers. He goes on at great length reciting the history of his Administration's efforts to get assistance from Congress on this issue.

++Ruth Marcus for the Washington Post in one of the numerous columns praising the President in the last few days writes about the Obama strategy of closing Gitmo by the end of his second term. Marcus argues that President Obama will painstakingly whittle the numbers of detainees down so that the expense will be too high to justify the current ban on bringing detainees to the United States. 

++ The cost is now $3million per detainee per year compared to $75,000 for a SuperMax prison. President Obama's calculus is that as the population dwindles that expense will grow and make it unacceptable for Congress to justify the continued expense. 

++The objection to resettlement is that they would present a terrorist threat to mainland America. The detainee now on trial for Benghazi has been camping out only a mile from my house and I don't feel he poses a threat and no one has mentioned him since his capture. He's just not the talk of the neighborhood. I have always argued that they can be relocated to the Naval Brig in Charlestown, South Carolina.

++Gitmo, the Torture program, the record of detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan remain issues we as a country have to cope with--some day. Federal courts have been hitting nearly a 100% on convictions of suspected terrorists but the military commissions have yet to yield a conviction. 

++Yesterday the United States sent 4 detainees home to Afghanistan and released them to the Afghan's authority.

++ Expect to see drips and drabs of detainees released during the next two years. 

++A kudos to Ruth Marcus for actually discussing President Obama's amazing record for judicial appointments. She is right this is a legacy to shape a generation.