UPDATED: NDAA Prevents Closing Guantanamo, Could Lead to Claims of a Right to Discriminate

Guantánamo inmates kneel at prayers. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

 

 Obama Jeopardizes Ability to Close Guantanamo While Raising 

Discrimination Concerns in the Military

 

 

WASHINGTON – President Obama has signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which jeopardizes his ability to meet his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay during his presidency. The law also contains a troubling provision compelling the military to accommodate the conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs of all members of the armed forces without accounting for the effect an accommodation would have.

The NDAA restricts Obama’s ability to transfer detainees for repatriation or resettlement in foreign countries or to prosecute them in federal criminal court. Originally set to expire on March 27, the transfer restrictions have been extended through Sept. 30. As recently as October, Obama reiterated his commitment to close Guantanamo. Currently, 166 prisoners remain at the prison camp.

"President Obama has utterly failed the first test of his second term, even before inauguration day. His signature means indefinite detention without charge or trial, as well as the illegal military commissions, will be extended,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "He also has jeopardized his ability to close Guantanamo during his presidency. Scores of men who have already been held for nearly 11 years without being charged with a crime--including more than 80 who have been cleared for transfer--may very well be imprisoned unfairly for yet another year. The president should use whatever discretion he has in the law to order many of the detainees transferred home, and finally step up next year to close Guantanamo and bring a definite end to indefinite detention."

For the full article, please go here:  http://www.aclu.org/national-security/updated-ndaa-prevents-closing-guantanamo-could-lead-claims-right-discriminate

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There is a higher court than the courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.
Mahatma Gandhi 

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?
Khalil Gibran