Tag Archives: Obama Administration

Exclusive: Justice Department opposes new Obama proposal on Guantanamo

Guantanamo Bay

By Charles Levinson

NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is again facing dissent from within his administration – this time from Attorney General Loretta Lynch – over his plans to shutter the Guantanamo Bay military prison, according to senior administration officials.

Lynch, a former federal prosecutor whom Obama appointed to head the Justice Department two years ago, is opposing a White House-backed proposal that would allow Guantanamo Bay prisoners to plead guilty to terrorism charges in federal court by videoconference, the officials said.

Over the past three months, Lynch has twice intervened to block administration proposals on the issue, objecting that they would violate longstanding rules of criminal-justice procedure.

In the first case, her last-minute opposition derailed a White House-initiated legislative proposal to allow video guilty pleas after nearly two months of interagency negotiations and law drafting. In the second case, Lynch blocked the administration from publicly supporting a Senate proposal to legalize video guilty pleas.

“It’s been a fierce interagency tussle,” said a senior Obama administration official, who supports the proposal and asked not to be identified.

White House officials confirmed that President Obama supports the proposal. But the president declined to overrule objections from Lynch, the administration’s top law-enforcement official.

“There were some frustrations,” said a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The top lawyer in the land has weighed in, and that was the DOJ’s purview to do that.”

If enacted into law, the Obama-backed plan would allow detained terrorism suspects who plead guilty to serve their sentences in a third-country prison, without setting foot on U.S. soil. The plan would thus sidestep a Congressional ban on transferring detainees to the United States, which has left dozens of prisoners in long-term judicial limbo in Guantanamo, the American military enclave in Cuba.

Obama has vowed to close the prison on his watch. But while he has overseen the release of some 160 men from the prison, the facility still holds 80 detainees.

The video plea plan has broad backing within the administration, including from senior State Department and Pentagon officials. A Defense Department spokesman declined to comment.

The most enthusiastic backers of the plan have been defense lawyers representing up to a dozen Guantanamo Bay detainees who are eager to extricate their clients from seemingly indefinite detention.

Republicans in Congress have opposed the president’s plans to empty the prison, on the grounds that many of the detainees are highly dangerous. But there is some bipartisan support for the proposal as well, a rarity in the Guantanamo debate.

Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican voice on defense and national security issues, said Graham was “intrigued” by the proposal.

While support from a Republican senator would by no means guarantee the votes needed to pass, it does give the proposal a better chance than schemes that would transfer detainees from the Cuban enclave to the United States.

Obama views the video feed proposal as a meaningful step toward closing the facility and making good on one of his earliest pledges as president, administration officials said.

Of the 80 prisoners remaining in Guantanamo, roughly 30 have been approved for transfer to third countries by an interagency review board. Most of those 30 men are expected to be released from Guantanamo in coming weeks, according to administration officials.

The officials said they think that as many as 10 more prisoners could be added to the approved-for-transfer list by the review board. Finally, another 10 detainees are standing trial in military commissions.

That leaves roughly 30 detainees whom the government deems too dangerous to release but unlikely to be successfully prosecuted in court. As a result, those men would likely have to be transferred to detention in the United States if the prison were closed.

Administration officials say that allowing video feeds could reduce that number to somewhere between 10 and 20. The administration believes that with such a small number of prisoners requiring transfer to the United States, it would be easier to win support for closing the facility, which is run by a staff of 2,000 military personnel.

“This is the group that gives the president the most heartburn,” said the senior administration official.

Lynch and her deputies at the Justice Department argued that the laws of criminal procedure do not allow defendants to plead guilty remotely by videoconference.

Even if Congress were to pass the law, Lynch and her aides have told the White House that federal judges may rule that such pleas are in effect involuntary, because Guantanamo detainees would not have the option of standing trial in a U.S. courtroom.

A defendant in federal court usually has the option to plead guilty or face a trial by jury. In the case of Guantanamo detainees, the only option they would likely face is to plead guilty or remain in indefinite detention.

“How would a judge assure himself that the plea is truly voluntary when if the plea is not entered, the alternative is you’re still in Gitmo?” said a person familiar with Lynch’s concerns about the proposal. “That’s the wrinkle.”

Lawyers for Guantanamo detainee Majid Khan, a 36-year-old Pakistani citizen, first proposed allowing Khan to plead guilty by videoconference in a legal memo submitted to the Department of Justice in November. In 2012, Khan confessed in military court to delivering $50,000 to Qaeda operatives who used it to carry out a truck bombing in Indonesia, and to plotting with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, on various planned strikes.

Senate investigators found internal CIA documents confirming that Khan’s CIA interrogators subjected him to forced rectal feedings. Khan’s lawyers say the experience amounted to rape. He was also water-boarded.

That treatment makes it difficult for the Department of Justice to successfully prosecute Khan in federal court, according to administration officials.

When White House officials learned that Khan and other detainees were ready to plead guilty to terrorism charges in federal court, they thought they had found a solution.

Efforts to try detainees, including Mohammed and other Sept. 11 suspects, in military tribunals at Guantanamo have bogged down over legal disputes. Only eight defendants have been fully prosecuted. Three verdicts have been overturned.

“The beauty of a guilty plea is you don’t need a trial,” said the senior administration official who supports the video plea proposal.

In February, senior Obama aides proposed pushing ahead with video guilty pleas at an interagency meeting at the White House on the closure of Guantanamo, according to officials briefed on the meeting.

Justice Department officials said they opposed video guilty pleas. Matthew Axelrod, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, said the proposal would violate laws of criminal procedure, according to the officials.

The meeting ended with an agreement to pursue new legislation allowing the guilty pleas, the officials said, which the Department of Justice supported.

One week later, President Obama rolled out his plan to close the prison in a nationally televised announcement from the Roosevelt Room. Obama’s plan included seeking “legislative changes … that might enable detainees who are interested in pleading guilty” in U.S. federal courts.

Administration officials spent much of the next two months drafting the new law. On a Friday afternoon in mid-April, White House staff emailed all the involved agencies with a final draft of the bill, according to the officials. The bill would be submitted to Congress the following Monday, the White House email said.

That weekend, Lynch intervened unexpectedly and said the Justice Department opposed the bill. The eleventh-hour move frustrated White House staff. Deciding again to not overrule Lynch, the White House shelved the bill.

In late May, White House officials found a sympathetic lawmaker who inserted language authorizing video pleas into the annual defense spending bill. The White House drafted a policy memo publicly supporting the proposal, which is known as a Statement of Administration Policy, or SAP.

Lynch opposed the idea, according to administration officials, sparking renewed tensions between the Justice Department and White House.

A SAP is the president’s public declaration on the substance of a bill, according to Samuel Kernell, a political science professor at the University of California at San Diego. Without one, it’s often more difficult to get lawmakers on the fence to vote the way the White House wants.

The White House again bowed to Lynch’s objections and declined to issue the SAP.

(Additional reporting By David Rohde. Editing by Michael Williams)

U.S. Exploring Nuclear Deal with Pakistan

Pakistan has one of the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal on Earth, and the Obama administration is exploring a deal that would attempt to limit their nuclear capabilities.

The talks will be the first in the decade since Adul Qadeer Khan, one of the founders of Pakistan’s nuclear program, was caught selling the country’s nuclear technology around the world. The discussion of a deal is also taking place in advance of the arrival of Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who will be in Washington next week. Officials are concerned that the Middle Eastern country may be close to deploying a small nuclear weapon.

“If Pakistan would take the actions requested by the United States, it would essentially amount to recognition of rehabilitation and would essentially amount to parole,” George Perkovich, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the New York Times of the potential agreement.

The deal would loosen controls on Pakistan by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a group of countries that supply nuclear materials in attempts to see the number of nuclear weapons grow rapidly.

Experts that are familiar with the discussions showed skepticism that Pakistan would agree to the deal. They are not likely to put restrictions on a program that is the pride of the nation and their only defense against India.

Iranian Supreme Leader Says Israel Will Not Survive 25 Years

Iran’s supreme leader posted online that Israel will not survive 25 more years.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted a series of messages on the social media network Twitter on Wednesday attacking the United States and Israel.  A series of posts indicated they will not let up on terrorizing Israel.

“After negotiations, in Zionist regime they said they had no more concern about Iran for next 25 years; I’d say: Firstly, you will not see next 25 years; God willing, there will be nothing as Zionist regime by next 25 years. Secondly, until then, struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists,” Khamenei posted.

The posting was taken from a transcript of a speech that he had delivered earlier Wednesday.

Analysts say the speech was aimed at quelling dissent among the country’s hardliners.  The speech also included statements that Americans would not be allowed on Iranian soil to conduct inspections as part of the nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and five other nations.

Intelligence Officials Admit China Has Hacked Obama Administration Emails Since 2010

Senior U.S. Intelligence officials are confirming that China has been hacking the emails of Obama Administration officials since 2010.

The National Security Agency (NSA) has confirmed the intrusions were first detected in April 2010 and that the hacking of various accounts is still taking place.  The NSA official said that all top national security and trade officials have been targeted by the attack including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead.

Gmail accounts were specifically mentioned by the NSA official but other email providers were also confirmed to have violated by the attack.

NBC reported the hacks were first code-named “Dancing Panda” and then “Legion Amethyst.”

“There’s no effective defense against these attacks and, as we’ve seen, there’s also no effective deterrence,” geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer told Business Insider in June.

“China isn’t trying to engage in ‘integrity’ attacks against the US — they don’t want to destroy American institutions and architecture as, after all, they’re hugely invested in American economic success,” he added.

Obama Administration Admits Deceiving Israel; Issues Travel Warning

In what some observers are calling petty acts of revenge against Israel for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress, the Obama administration admitted they have been withholding information about negotiations with Iran from Israeli leaders.

Not only did the administration admit the withholding of information, they also attacked Israeli officials for what they called “cherry picking” of information for complaints about U.S. actions.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said “not everything you’re hearing from the Israeli government is an accurate depiction of the talks.”  Critics say, however, that if Israel’s descriptions are not accurate, why the administration is hiding the details of the negotiations.

Meanwhile, the State Department lashed out at Israel by issuing a travel warning to Americans advising them against travel to that nation.  The announcement puts Israel on the same level as Iran, Yemen and Nigeria in the eyes of the state department.

The report from the State Department even admits that while conditions in major cities are the same as metro areas around the world, they are still issuing a travel warning.

Obama Administration Opposes Abortion Bill

The Obama administration has stated they oppose a bill in Congress that would ban abortions after five months.

The administration says that the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is an “assault on a woman’s right to choose.”

“The administration strongly opposes H.R. 36, which would unacceptably restrict women’s health and reproductive rights and is an assault on a woman’s right to choose,” the White House Office of Management and Budget wrote in a memo on Tuesday. “Women should be able to make their own choices about their bodies and their health care, and government should not inject itself into decisions best made between a woman and her doctor.”

The bill is scheduled for a vote in the House Thursday, the 42nd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion.

“[T]here is substantial medical evidence that an unborn child is capable of experiencing pain at least by 20 weeks after fertilization, if not earlier,” the bill reads. “It is the purpose of the Congress to assert a compelling governmental interest in protecting the lives of unborn children from the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that they are capable of feeling pain.”

Administration Releases Five Terrorists From Guantanamo

Five Islamic terrorists from Yemen have been released from Guantanamo Bay by the Obama administration and four were sent to Oman.

Oman is right next door to Yemen and it would be likely the terrorists could then simply cross the border into Yemen and return to their terror cells.  The fifth terrorist was sent to Estonia.

“The United States coordinated with the Government of Oman to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures,” the DOD said.

Yemen has been in the spotlight since the terrorist attacks in Paris because the Al Qaeda affiliates located in Yemen planned the operations.  Republican Senators are calling on the administration to stop the release of terrorists from Guantanamo and returning them to Middle East.

“It’s clear that we need a time out,” Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) said.  “Now is not the time to be emptying Guantanamo.”

Congress Declares Fort Hood Attack Terrorism

Congress is preparing to announce that the victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting will have been victims of a terrorist attack.

The Obama administration had been denying the incident where Major Nidal Hasan was an act of workplace violence despite the fact Hasan had indicated he was making an act of Islamist terrorism.

House Republicans worked with members of the Democrat-controlled Senate Armed Services committee to put a provision in a defense authorization bill that will acknowledge the victims of Fort Hood are terrorist victims, making them eligible for Purple Hearts and for assistance awards to victims of terrorist actions.

The new language inserted by the members of Congress states that Purple Heart medals can be awarded to “members of the armed forces killed or wounded in domestic attacks inspired by foreign terrorist organizations.”

Hasan killed 13 and wounded 32 in his terror attack.  Hasan had e-mail exchanged with Anwar al-Awlaki, a top al-Qaeda leader, who helped plan the attack.  Hasan had tried multiple times to become an official member of al-Qaeda.

Still, the Obama administration continues to deny that Hasan’s actions were terrorist in nature.

Potential Defense Secretary Quiet Supporter of Israel

The likely replacement for Chuck Hagel as defense secretary is seen as a likely stronger support of Israel than previous Obama Administration appointees.

Ashton Carter is described by those within the defense intelligence community as “an efficient administrator” and is believed to be an ally of top military brass rather than someone who views military leadership as an adversary.

Carter visited Israel in 2013 and told IDF soldiers “protecting America means protecting Israel, and that’s why we’re here in the first place.”

Carter, while considered the front runner, has been passed over for the top defense position on two other occasions and Israeli officials say they’re optimistic but will be cautious until Carter officially holds the position.

Israeli officials are also encouraged that Carter has been a strong advocate for making sure Iran does not have the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

Imprisoned Pastor’s Wife Speaks Out On Second Anniversary

The wife of imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedini is speaking out about the lack of moment by the U.S. government on her husband’s behalf as he marks two years behind bars.

Naghmeh Abedini addressed the issue on Friday ahead of her speech Saturday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.  She says that the Obama administration has gotten better about speaking about her husband’s plight over the years.

“They’ve come a long way,” said Naghmeh. “The first six months when Saeed was in prison there were no statements. The last year and a half we’ve seen a few statements.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last spoke of Saeed’s plight where he also called for the release of other Americans being held by Iranian authorities.

“The United States respectfully calls on the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to release Amir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini, and Jason Rezaian to their families and work cooperatively with us to find Robert Levinson and bring him home,” said Kerry.  At the time, Kerry claimed the government was working hard to see the release of the prisoners.

Naghmeh Abedini is not so sure.

“I have to say it is frustrating. It has been two years. It seems like there are a lot of statements, but no action. What are we doing to get him home?” she said.

Naghmeh says that she has felt stronger support coming from countries other than the United States, which boosts her hope that her husband may soon be released from custody.

“It’s encouraging because now it just isn’t between the U.S. and Iran,” said Naghmeh. “It’s the whole world speaking out. Brazil, Canada, England and other European nations have been a great support.”

Prayer rallies for Saeed Abedini were held around the world Friday on the two-year anniversary with over 400 gatherings in countries from Brazil to Kenya.