Gitmo: The Political Prison Obama Built for Himself

One year ago today in one of his very first public actions, President Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility within a year. The decision prompted much criticism and concerns about Obama's naiveté about the nature of the detainees and lack of coherent plan of where and how to relocate them. Now, his own Justice Department has determined one-in-four of the remaining prisoners are too dangerous to be released, and should not or cannot be prosecuted in civilian court, as well.

Yesterday, the AP marked the one year deadline by noting Obama would miss the date by "a wide margin, likely a year or more." Leftist groups have taken to protesting against Obama for "broken promises."

Describing yet another political box that Obama finds himself in along with what to do now about his signature issue of health care reform, the AP wrote, "Unless he decides to change course, to close Gitmo the president must still find support in Congress to pay for a super-secure prison in Illinois for some of the detainees he wants to continue holding. He must also get additional money, likely hundreds of millions of dollars, to provide extra security to put some suspects, including (Khalid Sheikh) Mohammed, on trial in federal courts."

Obama is quickly finding it far more difficult to govern than to just spew populist rhetoric on a campaign trail. Problematic, however, is that as he attempts to deliver on misguided promises, he is playing with America's national security and our freedoms. Following is a Washington Post feature regarding the findings of the Justice Department's Gitmo task force:

Justice task force recommends about 50 Guantanamo detainees be held indefinitely
By Peter Finn, The Washington Post
Friday, January 22, 2010

"A Justice Department-led task force has concluded that nearly 50 of the 196 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war, according to Obama administration officials."

"The task force's findings represent the first time that the administration has clarified how many detainees it considers too dangerous to release but unprosecutable because officials fear trials could compromise intelligence-gathering and because detainees could challenge evidence obtained through coercion." Read more