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Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Tuesday that President Obama is pushing to shutter the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility as final gift to the Castros before leaving office. "I believe that President Obama intends to try to give the Guantanamo naval facility to Raul and Fidel Castro as a parting gift," Cruz told a couple hundred voter in Nevada, according to The Washington Post . "Four decades ago, Jimmy Carter gave away the Panama Canal. We built it, we paid for it, and then a feckless left-wing president gave it away to undermine this country. Well, Mr. President, you...

President Obama on Tuesday sent Congress a long-awaited plan for closing the Guantánamo Bay prison, beginning a final push to fulfill a campaign promise and one of his earliest national security policy goals in the face of deep skepticism from many Republican lawmakers. Congress required Mr. Obama to present a plan as part of the most recent defense authorization bill, and its basic approach echoed the strategy the administration has already been pursuing for seven years. It centers on bringing between 30 and 60 detainees who are deemed too dangerous to release to a prison on domestic soil, while transferring...

President Obama's views on the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center - namely that the facility "does not advance our national security", but "undermines it" - runs counter to the views of [former] U.S Navy admiral and commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, William McRaven, who, when asked by Sen. Kelly Ayotte - during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in June of 2011 - whether there was a need for a long-term detention & interrogation facility, like Guantanamo Bay, to gather vital intelligence information - replied in the affirmative, saying that a detention center of this nature is indeed "very...

President Obama detailed Tuesday a four-point plan he'll submit to Congress to eventually close the detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba -- a plan that includes releasing more of the remaining 91 detainees, while transferring others to an as-yet determined facility on U.S. soil.

The White House has revealed its plans for closing the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention facility, one of the president's long-standing goals. The Pentagon has proposed transferring the remaining 91 detainees to their home countries or to US military or civilian prisons. But Congress is deeply opposed and expected to block the move. The prison costs $445m (£316m) to run annually and closing it was an early promise from President Barack Obama. He told reporters on Tuesday the prison undermines national security. "This is about closing a chapter in our history," said Mr Obama. "It reflects the lessons we've learned since...

President Barack Obama on Tuesday presented a long-awaited plan to Congress to shut down the controversial detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, insisting that keeping the prison open is "contrary to our values." "It's been clear that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay does not advance our national security," Obama said from the Roosevelt Room at the White House. "It undermines our standing in the world." The plan, which has been on Obama's agenda since he took office in 2009, hinges on the transfer of between 30 and 60 detainees to U.S. soil, and suggesting several possible locations in South Carolina,...

U.S. officials say the Pentagon's long-awaited plan to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer the remaining detainees to a facility in the United States calls for up to $475 million in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operating cost savings. The plan, which will be delivered to Congress Tuesday, is the administration's last-ditch effort to make good on President Barack Obama's campaign vow to close Guantanamo and convince lawmakers to allow the Defense Department to move nearly 60 detainees to the U.S. But the plan...

The Pentagon is poised to submit a plan to Congress for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, a spokesman said Monday. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the administration will meet the Tuesday deadline for submitting a proposal for closing the facility and moving its terrorist detainees. "We understand that the deadline is tomorrow, and it's our intent to meet it," Davis said. The plan will call for the closure of the detention facility and lay out several options on how to do so, Davis said. President Obama is pushing to close the prison and fulfill a long-standing campaign promise before...

In the frantic effort to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo the Obama administration keeps freeing the world's most dangerous terrorists, this month a Taliban soldier who served as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard. The Yemeni, Majid Mahmud Abdu Ahmed, will be released to an Arabic-speaking country with "appropriate security assurances" and "reintegration support," according to the Periodic Review Board (PRB) created by the president to clear out the compound at the U.S. military base in southeast Cuba. "The Periodic Review Board, by consensus, determined that continued law of war detention of the detainee is no longer necessary to protect...

We all know the president wants to close Guantanamo Bay, the plans for which how that will be achieved are expected this month, but what happens if we continue to nab more Islamic extremists? For now, the interrogations occur on naval ships and the prisoners are transferred to other nations' legal systems, or they're brought here to be tried in our court system. That's including military commissions, according to the Associated Press. Yet, this lack of clarity on what to do if we see an uptick in captured terrorists has legal wonks and national security officials unnerved: "If you're going to...

When Ibrahim al Qosi was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2012, a lawyer for the former Usama bin Laden aide said he looked forward to living a life of peace in his native Sudan. Three years later, Qosi has emerged as a prominent voice of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, appearing in a number of AQAP propaganda videos -- including a 50-minute lecture calling for the takeover of Saudi Arabia. ...

The Obama administration announced Thursday the latest release of terrorists from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One of the men, a Bosnian named Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed al-Sawah, admitted to being a member of al-Qaida and developed explosives for the terror group to target U.S. military personnel and civilians, the Free Beacon reported. The Hill first reported the release and transfer of al-Sawah back to Bosnia. Al-Sawah developed explosives and trained al-Qaida operatives in how to use them, according to his file, which was published by the New York Times. “Detainee is an admitted member of al-Qaida who developed...

What could go wrong? The Obama administration pushed its project to empty the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to a new level today. CNN’s Jake Tapper reported that the Department of Defense announced the release of a full-fledged member of al-Qaeda to Bosnia — one of the men who presented a threat to commercial airliners before getting captured in 2002 by purportedly inventing the shoe bomb: DOD announces transfer of Gitmo detainee Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed Al Sawah to Bosnia. Member of AQ who developed IEDs to use v commercial planes— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 21, 2016 The Miami Herald...

The Obama administration has released one of al Qaeda’s most skilled explosives experts, a man personally praised by Osama bin Laden and who created the shoe-bomb design that was used unsuccessfully to bring down an airliner in 2001. The Pentagon said on Thursday that Egyptian Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed Al Sawah, who may have known of the September 11, 2001 plot, was transferred to the government of Bosnia. Al Sawah fought with the Bosnia army in the early 1990s and eventually made his way to Afghanistan in 2000. Like other members of al Qaeda, al-Sawah began his terrorism career as a...

New limits are being imposed on media access to the detention center at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the commander of the military's Southern Command said Thursday, outlining rules that will limit what journalists can see and how often they can visit the already highly restricted site. Journalists will be allowed to visit the center on tours that will be organized once per quarter, lasting no more than a day, and they will no longer be able to visit inside the two detention center camps where a majority of the 107 current prisoners are held, Marine Corps Gen....

Demands return of dummy Hellfire missile Congress may consider blocking the United States and Cuba from conducting joint security exercises until the Obama administration can prove the communist regime has dialed back its anti-American efforts, according to a letter sent to the Pentagon and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a leading critic of the administration's detente with Cuba, petitioned Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Wednesday, demanding that he disinvite Cuba from the upcoming Caribbean Nations Security Conference, which will be held later this month in Jamaica. Cruz is concerned about recent reports that Cuba...

If Republicans on Tuesday win the majority of seats in the House, that body's intelligence panel is likely to give fresh oversight of the Obama administration's prosecution review of the CIA's enhanced interrogation program. Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the highest-ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told The Washington Times last week that he would expect the next Republican chairman of the committee to hold hearings on how the threat of prosecutions has affected the CIA's morale. "I expect vigorous oversight of this administration now," Mr. Hoekstra said. "What has been the impact of [Attorney General...

The National Chief Iman (NCI), Sheikh Dr Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, has welcomed the two Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been accepted to live in the country. "Any 'criminal' who has reformed and wants to reintegrate with any society must be accepted on humanitarian grounds, according to Islam, and that we consider as a duty," Sheikh Sharubutu said through his spokesman, Sheik Aremiyaw Shuaib. Sheikh Sharubutu was reacting to concerns expressed by some individuals and groups over the government's acceptance of the two detainees who were linked to terrorist activities....

Congressional Republicans are sending an early warning to the Defense Department that its plan to close Guantánamo Bay would break the law. "No matter how hard the President wishes it wasn't the case, transferring dozens of dangerous terrorists to any domestic location is illegal," Republican Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.), Pat Roberts (Kan.) and Tim Scott (S.C.) said Friday. "Moving the detainees to South Carolina, Kansas or Colorado will not lead to even the smallest change in the beliefs or propaganda of radical Islamic terrorists." They added that the President Obama's push to create a "Gitmo North" location within the United...

With a phone and a pen. That is the answer as to how President Obama can transfer Guantanamo detainees to prisons on the U.S. mainland despite the fact that Congress expressly prohibited this. However, kudos to Jake Tapper on The Lead today for questioning the legality of such a transfer during an interview with an equally skeptical CNN Pentagon Correspondent, Barbara Starr.