Guantanamo Bay: Why Obama hasn’t fulfilled his promise to close the facility (barfer)

The sputtering end of the Obama administration’s plans to prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed in federal court came one day late last month in a conversation between the president and one of his top Cabinet members.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had called President Obama to inform him that he would be returning the case to the Defense Department, a decision that would mark the effective abandonment of the president’s promise to close the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

During the call, Obama did not press Holder to find a way to resurrect the federal prosecution of Mohammed and four co-defendants, according to senior administration officials familiar with the conversation. He did not object. Instead, he called it a pragmatic decision.

It's a long read, but essentially (and not surprisingly) WaPoo blames almost everyone but Obama. In fact, the only Republican they spoke to explicitly for the story is (not surprisingly) Graham (or at least he's the only quote they used).

Two interesting quotes for the story...

On Obama’s inauguration night, when the new administration instructed military prosecutors to seek the suspension of all proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, defense lawyers at the base formed a boisterous conga line.

“Rule of law, baby!” they shouted.

The president asked Matthew G. Olsen, the Justice Department lawyer heading the task force, approximately how many Guantanamo detainees could be prosecuted, according to administration officials.

Probably fewer than 20, Olsen said.

Indeed, the failed effort to close Guantanamo was reflective of the aspects of Obama’s leadership style that continue to distress his liberal base — a willingness to allow room for compromise and a passivity that at times permits opponents to set the agenda.

Wow, with all of the mental backflips that Peter Finn and Anne E. Kornblut have engaged in to justify Obama's flawed policy decisions and paint Dear Leader in the most favorable light, they must be top contenders for a tag-team role in the 2012 Olympic gymnastics competition.

To them, it's just a reflection of Obama's "leadership style", rather than evidence of a lack of leadership, dangerously-foolish policies, and overall incompetence.

There is a very direct answer to the question of why Obama hasn’t fulfilled his promise to close the Guantanamo facility, that has evidently escaped the notice of the authors. The plan to close Guantanamo and put the terrorists on trial in a civilian court was a naive, bumbling and dangerous one that was undertaken by Obama in complete denial of reality. The fact that it blew up in Obama's and Holder's faces was predictable and inevitable.

The article's premise is laughable on its face to anybody with even a scintilla of critical thinking abilities, but for fawning Team Obama sycophants and cheerleaders in the press, it wasn't Obama's fault, nothing could have been done anyway, it was the will of allah, it's the fault of those mean Republicans, Obama was handed a far more challenging world situation than any prior president had ever experienced, he was so thoroughly engaged in the pressing business of the nation that he was prevented from devoting attention to it, yada yada yada.

The buck never lands on the desk in this administration's Oval Office...

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