Despite Congress' massive bipartisan effort to keep Guantanamo Bay prison open by refusing to resettle any of the detainees who were determined not to be dangerous in the United States, the Obama administration has managed to find other countries to take them.
Six European Union countries -- Britain, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain -- have accepted or publicly agreed to take detainees. Four E.U. countries have privately told the administration that they are committed to resettling detainees, and five other E.U. nations are considering taking some, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Steve Benen writes, "It occasionally pays to have a U.S. president with stature and credibility on the global stage." Well yeah. But that'll only go so far, especially if Guantanamo remains open or Bagram prison remains the alternative legal black hole that it was under Bush.
On the latter point, I'm actually cautiously optimistic. Despite appealing a judge's decision to grant habeas rights to Bagram detainees who were captured in third countries, the Obama administration has already sent the FBI in to mirandize detainees it intends to charge, and this morning Major General Doug Stone said most of the detainees will need to be released.
The final question that really needs to be answered, and that would shed the most light on the Obama administration's intentions, is whether or not they have continued to transfer detainees captured in third countries to Bagram in order to avoid judicial oversight--the same way the Bush administration did.
-- A. Serwer
