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Leaders in Congress and the U.S. attorney general say President Obama simply doesn't have legal authority to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility through executive action, but that fact didn't stop a supremely confident president last week from threatening to act on his own if lawmakers won't cooperate. At a year-end press conference on Friday -- the same day Mr. Obama signed a massive spending bill that seems to prohibit him from closing Guantanamo on his own -- the president said he will explore the limits of his executive power if the House and Senate don't pass legislation to shutter...

Looking past the distraction of releasing terrorists from Guantanamo, there seems to be another reason for Obama wanting to close it down. The Guantanamo Naval Station is an important asset connected to the defense of the United States and helps America keep an eye on the communist government of Cuba which aligned itself with Russia during the 1960s which then imported nuclear weapons into Cuba. Those who do not recall the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s need to read: The Cuban Missile Crisis and Threat of Nuclear War The Guantanamo Naval Station is a strategic outpost on a landmass...

Many questioned Barack Obama’s judgment when he backed away from his own “red line” in Syria, but Chuck Hagel tells Foreign Policy in an exclusive interview that it was actually worse than that. Obama lost his nerve, Hagel alleges, calling off promised strikes on Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Hagel also says that Obama’s team then stabbed him in the back as he was heading for the exits, and tried to “destroy me”: Jet-lagged from a long overseas trip, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had just sat down with his wife for a quiet dinner at an...

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has been wounded in a gunfight at a meeting of militants in the Pakistani city of Quetta, reports say.

At least three of five Taliban fighters swapped for the freedom of Bowe Bergdahl, a Taliban captive now being charged with desertion, are reportedly actively making efforts to join the terrorist cause once again. Catherine Herridge of Fox News decided to check up on them after news of Bergdahl’s desertion charges broke. It turns out that according to an unnamed government source, at least three of the Taliban 5 have “tried to plug back into their old terror networks.”

Obama Admin Had Tapes of Bergdahl Deserting to Taliban - Ignored Them at Trial Retired General David Hunt told Bill O'Reilly tonight the Obama administration has tapes that prove Bowe Bergdahl deserted to the Taliban. The Obama administration did not use the tapes in the trial of Bergdahl.

According to a Wednesday night post on the website Long War Journal by Thomas Joscelyn, a former detainee held at Guantanamo Bay named Ibrahim Qosi has rejoined the world of Islamic terrorism and ascended to a leadership post in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) following his release in July 2012. With this shocking story coming as the Obama administration still hopes to close the prison, the question going forward from a media standpoint is this: Will the media show any interest in this threat to national security and failure on the part of the adminstration? According to Joscelyn, Qoosi...

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a new video featuring a former Guantanamo detainee, Ibrahim Qosi, who is also known as Sheikh Khubayb al Sudani. In July 2010, Qosi plead guilty to charges of conspiracy and material support for terrorism before a military commission. His plea was part of a deal in which he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors during his remaining time in US custody. Qosi was transferred to his home country of Sudan two years later, in July 2012. Qosi joined AQAP in 2014 and became one of its leaders.

Ibrahim Qosi, also known as Sheikh Khubayb al Sudani, formerly of a cell in Guantanamo Bay, is now a leader with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operating in Yemen. Qosi was in a video released by AQAP this week. Qosi joined AQAP in 2014 and became one of its leaders. Qosi and other AQAP commanders discussed their time waging jihad at length in the video, entitled "Guardians of Sharia." Islamic scholars ensure the "correctness" of the "jihadist project," according to Qosi. And the war against America continues through "individual jihad," which al Qaeda encourages from abroad. Here, Qosi...

"Combat Effectiveness" Being Degraded by Obama's Military Policies By evaluating an overwhelming amount of evidence that has been building for 6 ½ years, the obvious conclusion personnel with extensive military experience will come to, is that Obama’s military policies have been degrading the finest US military fighting force in history. Over the last 6 ½ years, the US Armed Forces has been hollowed out by Obama, his Social Experiment On Diversity has severely fractured unit cohesiveness, his “Politically Correct Policies” have negatively affected unit morale, and the “Combat Effectiveness” of the US military is being degraded. Tip of the spear...

Give Hillary this much credit — in this case, she acted more like a leader than Barack Obama. That’s not a high bar to clear, especially in Obama’s second term. At the beginning of that second term, Hillary urged Obama to get serious about his oft-stated and unpopular goal of closing down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, stressing that “we need a White House lead” on the issue. The Huffington Post’s Ryan J. Reilly got the memo in a FOIA request: Weeks before she stepped down as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton wrote a memo urging President Barack Obama...

President Obama on Wednesday signed a $607 billion annual defense policy bill, even though it includes language that hampers the closure of the Guantanamo Bay military prison. As a presidential candidate Obama pledged to close the controversial detention facility, but has been thwarted repeatedly by Congress, which opposes transferring detainees to the mainland United States. In a rare move, the president issued a signed statement blasting provisions in the bill intended to block the president from moving Guantanamo Bay prisoners to facilities within the U.S. "I am, however, deeply disappointed that the Congress has again failed to take productive action...

House Republicans who have served in the military are urging the Joint Chiefs of Staff to seek legal guidance before following any orders from the President Obama to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States In letter Monday, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan) and 15 of his veteran colleagues, told the Joint Chiefs to seek appropriate legal advice, prior to executing any order from the president. "It is of great concern to us that President Obama may be considering ordering a transfer of detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay to the United States via executive order," their letter said....

Two weeks ago, White House National Security adviser Susan Rice said during an interview that officials in the Obama administration would "die trying" to close Guantanamo Bay prison, something President Obama promised to do during his 2008 presidential campaign. Last summer we saw the exchange of Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl (someone Rice said served with "honor and distinction") for five top Taliban commanders. Now, just two days after ISIS carried out the worst terror attack in France since World War II, the Obama administration has transferred five more detainees to the United Arab Emirates.

Two weeks ago, White House National Security adviser Susan Rice said during an interview that officials in the Obama administration would "die trying" to close Guantanamo Bay prison, something President Obama promised to do during his 2008 presidential campaign. Last summer we saw the exchange of Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl (someone Rice said served with "honor and distinction") for five top Taliban commanders. Now, just two days after ISIS carried out the worst terror attack in France since World War II, the Obama administration has transferred five more detainees to the United Arab Emirates.The Department of Defense announced late Sunday...

There are times I think Obama does this sort of thing because he knows we'll go ballistic. Late Sunday night (!), the Pentagon announced that 5 Guantanamo detainees were being transferred to the United Arab Emirates. This, despite the fact that today, the president will sign the Defense Reauthorization Act, which contains specific language that would restrict such transfers. The Hill: The Pentagon announced Sunday evening that it has transferred five Guantánamo detainees to the United Arab Emirates, just ahead of President Obama signing a defense bill that would place restrictions on moving prisoners from the facility. "The United States is grateful...

The Department of Defense announced late Sunday that five detainees at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been released and sent to the United Arab Emirates.The transfer of Ali Ahmad Muhammad al-Razihi, Khalid Abd-al-Jabbar Muhammad Uthman al-Qadasi, Adil Said al-Hajj Ubayd al-Busays, Sulayman Awad Bin Uqayl al-Nahdi, and Fahmi Salem Said al-Asani, came after a “comprehensive review” by the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force, according to the Pentagon.The Pentagon said the five Yemeni men were accepted for resettlement in the Persian Gulf nation after U.S. authorities determined they no longer posed a threat.

For the past week, the White House has been talking about its first-day promise to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay — on the last day, if need be, of Barack Obama’s presidency. And it might take that long, too, because Congress has overwhelmingly passed a new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to fund the military that extends a prohibition on transfers from Gitmo. Obama isn’t likely to issue a veto, either: The Senate voted 91-3 on the $607-billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which lays out broad defense policy requirements and restrictions.Obama vetoed the original bill largely...

President Obama's plans to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay took another hit Tuesday as Congress passed the annual defense policy bill that keeps in place a ban on shipping any of the terrorist suspects to the U.S. Mr. Obama has repeatedly objected to the ban and earlier this year vetoed another version of the bill -- but this new version passed the Senate on a 91-3 vote Tuesday, and cleared the House on a 370-58 vote, signaling that he'd have a tough time getting Congress to back him up should be try to veto this one. The move...

President Obama is on a collision course with congressional Republicans over the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, with increasing chatter in Washington that he might seek to close the prison through executive action. The administration is expected to hand over a plan to Congress for shuttering the Cuban prison, in an attempt to fulfill a long-standing campaign pledge before Obama leaves office. But even as Obama seeks cooperation from Congress, White House press secretary Josh Earnest has refused to rule out unilateral action to close the prison camp. Earnest on Friday said Obama "certainly wouldn't take off the table the ability...