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That "Secret" White House Plan to Close Guantanamo
A few weeks ago, Daniel Klaidman noted in the Daily Beast the existence of a White House memo outlining its proposal to close Guantanamo.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
A few weeks ago, Daniel Klaidman noted in the Daily Beast the existence of a White House memo outlining its proposal to close Guantanamo. The two-page document was circulated to members of Congress in advance of a July 24th Senate Judiciary hearing on the matter.
The document was not made available publicly, but the Press Freedom Association has since obtained and published a copy of the 2-pager. It takes account of current Administration efforts to reduce the detainee population, and provides some helpful statistics on the detainee population and facility expenditures.
Much of the document reiterates the Administration's well-documented views on Guantanamo, including its opposition to transfer restrictions in recent NDAAs, as well as in the House version of the as-yet enacted 2014 NDAA. The paper also notes that the Senate Armed Services Committee's markup of the 2014 NDAA is a "marked improvement over current law."
Ben compared the transfer provisions in the House and SASC versions of the bill. We already knew that the White House disapproves of the GTMO transfer provisions in the House NDAA, and the new documents confirms that the SASC's version appears to be palatable to the Administration.
Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT.
Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.
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