Summary
President Obama should provide sustained leadership to increase the momentum to transfer prisoners out of Guantanamo and close the facility.
Sustained leadership
- Communicate to Congress and the American people the administration’s comprehensive plan for closing Guantanamo before leaving office.
- Publicly defend transfers of detainees out of Guantanamo as consistent with, and reflective of, national security interests.
- Highlight the important changes the administration has made in the policy and practice of evaluating detainees for potential transfer.
- Correct misconceptions about the ability of U.S. prisons to safely hold Guantanamo detainees.
- Direct the president’s top counterterrorism advisor to establish clear benchmarks for, and periodic reviews of, the relevant agencies’ Guantanamo closure efforts to ensure the facility is closed by the end of the president’s second term.