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White House preparing executive action on Guantanamo closing

The executive branch could circumvent Congress to close the Guantanamo facility.

By Ed Adamczyk
A section of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg
A section of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- The White House is preparing a list of options by which it could close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility without congressional involvement, senior administration officials said.

President Barack Obama has long advocated closing the facility, which houses foreign terrorism suspects, and transferring detainees to prisons in the United States and to other countries willing to accept them. Such a use of executive power, though, would likely bring a strong reaction from legislators. The Guantanamo Bay facility currently holds 149 inmates, detained in the United States' campaign on terrorism. While Obama prefers a legislative resolution to closing the facility, executive action -- by which Congress would be circumvented -- remains within his legal authority. House Republicans, though, have threatened to challenge that authority, over other matters, in court.

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White House officials say Obama could veto the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual military policy bill, which includes a ban on transferring detainees. He could also sign the bill but declare restrictions on removing detainees from Guantanamo a breach of his authority.

Transfers of prisoners from Guantanamo to foreign prisons have slowed, but the Obama administration has named special envoys in the State Dept. and Defense Dept. to speed the handovers, and inmates were swapped in May for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. prisoner or war. The exchange that returned Bergdahl to the United States was done without a required 30-day advance notice of Congress, which drew criticism from legislators.

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In a related matter, a federal judge issued an Oct. 17 deadline for the administration to comply with her order to make videos available of a Guantanamo inmate, Abu Wa'el Dhiab, being constrained and force-fed. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler's two-page order provided a deadline for the release of the evidence, sought by 16 media organizations, and comes after she ordered the release of the videos Oct. 3. It also demands that the government and the media groups submit by Oct. 20 "a joint proposal regarding how the videotapes can be made available to the public."

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