Close Guantánamo


To close Guantánamo:

  • The president must order his administration to end indefinite detention and close the Guantánamo prison.
     
  • The president should require the Secretary of Defense to continue to use existing certification and waiver procedures to promptly repatriate and resettle abroad all prisoners who have been cleared for release. He should also require the Department of State to secure transfer abroad.
     
  • The president must order the Secretary of Defense to ensure the Periodic Review Board ("PRB") process, which determines whether the continued imprisonment of un-cleared detainees is justified, is meaningfully followed.  
     
  • The president should suspend the failing military commissions, and the executive branch should transfer to federal court any detainee it seeks to prosecute, if there is untainted evidence against him.
     
  • The Departments of Defense and Justice should not contest habeas corpus challenges brought by detainees who are not prosecuted. Federal court judges should then promptly order these detainees’ release so they can be repatriated and resettled abroad.
     
  • The Department of Justice should enter into plea negotiations with detainees willing to plead guilty in federal court.

The other branches of government must also do their part to close Guantánamo:

  • Congress must lift the unnecessary restrictions on transfer and release from Guantánamo, including for the majority of men at Guantánamo, whom the national security agencies and military have unanimously determined should be released.
     
  • The Supreme Court must define the scope of war-time detention, and ensure that the right to habeas corpus is a meaningful one that tests, and does not endorse, the government’s case.

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