NYC Letter: More Awesome Change! IV, Part III

Day 248 of CHOPE

Mr. Obama was the guy who was going to close Gitmo, try, incarcerate stateside, repatriate, or fob off elsewhere (and this) the remaining detained terrorists. [Brushing hands.] With your vote, as good as done.

Sec. 3. Closure of Detention Facilities at Guantánamo. The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than 1 year from the date of this order.

EXECUTIVE ORDER -- REVIEW AND DISPOSITION
OF INDIVIDUALS DETAINED AT THE GUANTÁNAMO BAY
NAVAL BASE AND CLOSURE OF DETENTION FACILITIES
WASHINGTON January 22, 2009 (White House)

Mr. Obama got your vote -- or enough of somebodies' votes. After a little president-elect wobbling, as president he issued the above EO to close Gitmo within a year. As good as done.

Uh-oh.

WHITE HOUSE REGROUPS ON GUANTANAMO

September 25, 2009 (WaPo) - With four months left to meet its self-imposed deadline for closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Obama administration is working to recover from missteps that have put officials behind schedule and left them struggling to win the cooperation of Congress.

Even before the inauguration, President Obama's top advisers settled on a course of action they were counseled against: announcing that they would close the facility within one year. Today, officials are acknowledging that they will be hard-pressed to meet that goal.

The White House has faltered in part because of the legal, political and diplomatic complexities involved in determining what to do with more than 200 terrorism suspects at the prison. But senior advisers privately acknowledge not devising a concrete plan for where to move the detainees and mishandling Congress.

What was Team Barry thinking?

White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig, who initially guided the effort to close the prison and who was an advocate of setting the deadline, is no longer in charge of the project, two senior administration officials said this week.

Craig said Thursday that some of his early assumptions were based on miscalculations, in part because Bush administration officials and senior Republicans in Congress had spoken publicly about closing the facility.

Oh. Let's see if we have this right, Team Barry had hoped to co-opt some imagined Bush plan and enlist minority Republicans to produce the Democrats' closure of Gitmo. [Pause.] That's it. That was the big plan. Brilliant stuff.

Earlier posts here and here.

CHOPE.

Over-hyped. Over-promised. Undershot.