Will Obama really close Gitmo?

November 20, 9:05 AMConservative Politics ExaminerKathy Shaidle

Previous Next

9 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Conservative Politics Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

 When Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency, he repeatedly promised to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, where hundreds of terrorist suspects have been held since the beginning of the War on Terror.

As recently as last Sunday, he told 60 Minutes that he intended to keep his promise. "I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that,” Obama said, adding that the planned closure was “part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world.”

However, as president elect, Barack Obama is now privy to the same intelligence briefings as President Bush. It is entirely possible that he now appreciates the dangers posed by Guantanamo’s detainees in a way that he didn’t while running for office.

For instance, according to some reports, as many as 36 former Gitmo detainees have gone on to participate in terrorists attacks upon their release from the facility. It may be that Obama, like so many presidents before him, will be forced to adjust his policies to match the newly available evidence.

“Now Obama has to live with these decisions,” the conservative commentator Ed Morrissey observes, “and not simply snipe from the sidelines.”

To his credit, the president-elect now seems to recognize that reality is more complicated than campaign rhetoric. But questions remain about his fundamental understanding of the War on Terror. Peter Schweizer, a former member of the Ultraterrorism Study Group and now a Hoover Institution research fellow, told me in an exclusive interview that Obama will “undoubtedly change America’s approach to fighting the war on terror” – and not necessarily for the better.

The president-elect “has said before that he thinks we need to treat this as a ‘law enforcement issue,’” said Schweizer. “Last time I checked there was a substantial difference between burglars and Middle Eastern terrorists. We need to destroy our enemies, not guarantee their rights.”