In confirming on Thursday that the U.S. transferred Moroccan Younis Chekkouri from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay back to his home country, White House spokesman Josh Earnest blamed Congress for President Obama’s inability to deliver on his campaign promise to shutter the terrorist detainment camp in Cuba.
There’s a “variety of things that make this quite challenging,” Earnest said in explaining why 56 prisoners cleared to return to their home countries or a willing third country have yet to leave the island. “We’ve seen a number of obstacles erected by Congress intentionally to make this [process] more difficult,” he charged.
“Congress is the chief bottleneck” that has prevented the Obama administration from removing the remaining 115 prisoners, Earnest said. “That’s unfortunate, but it’s the situation that we’re dealing with.”
Another hurdle is the “high standard” Obama has set for permitting detainees to be sent elsewhere and other countries’ unwillingness to accept the prisoners.
“For a lot of these other countries, there’s not a lot of upside to taking a Gitmo detainee, right?” Earnest asked in explaining why, despite the State Department’s “concerted diplomatic efforts” to work with other nations to resettle the prisoners, the pace has been slow.
“In fact, that’s why the Bush administration tried to sidestep this issue from the very beginning and open up this prison several years ago because they didn’t know where to put them,” Earnest said.
Obama has sent 115 prisoners home or elsewhere, which is “an indication of the president’s commitment” to closing the facility, Earnest said.
When asked if Obama would succeed, Earnest said: “He’s sure gonna try.”
