Just as a reminder, Executive Order 13492, signed by the president three years ago yesterday, in part required …

Sec. 3. Closure of Detention Facilities at Guanta´namo. The detention facilities at Guanta´namo 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.  If any individuals covered by this order remain in detention at Guanta´namo  at the time of closure of those detention facilities, they shall be returned  to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred  to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with  law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.

In March 2011, the Obama administration ended a difficult chapter (per NPR) on Guantanamo for the president.

President Obama’s order to resume military trials at Guantanamo Bay and establish a system to hold some detainees indefinitely ends a difficult chapter in the story of the U.S. prison and the Obama White House.

Obama came into office two years ago promising to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year. The executive order he announced Monday serves as acknowledgment that it will remain open for some time.

The order lends formal permission to the policy by which the U.S. has held detainees at the prison — detainees who, in most cases, have not been charged or convicted but are deemed too dangerous to release. It also ends a two-year ban on the use of military commissions to try suspected terrorists.

Obama said Monday that his new policies will help “bring terrorists to justice.” But the new policy statement wasn’t much more than a recognition of fact and frustration.

Reality bites huh?

Note how Mara Liasson, writing for NPR, wrote the piece implying the issue is now closed. It was not what they wanted, but since the president tried, that’s all that matters. Did those who voted for hope and change just give up on their requirement Obama close the camp? Did they just drop it because Obama tried and failed?

Or maybe the media just dropped the issue, taking it off the table so Obama will not have to deal with the issue during his campaign for a second term?

First of all, even if Guantanamo Bay was being used as a major recruiting tool, I certainly would not suggest the facility be closed simply due to propaganda published by sworn enemies. Really now … do you think if we shut down Gitmo and moved the 150-plus detainees to the cool climate of Indiana, U.S.A., al-Qaida would send a note of thanks? Hardly, they would just replace references to Gitmo with the name of the new facility and keep going.

Even if we did not have a facility at all … terrorists would claim we had secret facilities around the world and use that propaganda as a recruitment tool.

You don’t expect them to tell the truth do you?

As recently as Dec. 22, Obama referred to the Gitmo “problem” in a news conference. My emphasis in bold.

Question: But it makes me wonder where you are, sir, at about the two-year mark on Guantanamo, when closing it was one of your initial priorities, sir?

THE PRESIDENT:  Obviously, we haven’t gotten it closed.  And let me just step back and explain that the reason for wanting to close Guantanamo was because my number one priority is keeping the American people safe.  One of the most powerful tools we have to keep the American people safe is not providing al Qaeda and jihadists recruiting tools for fledgling terrorists.

And Guantanamo is probably the number one recruitment tool that is used by these jihadist organizations.  And we see it in the websites that they put up.  We see it in the messages that they’re delivering.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air points us to a Weekly Standard post highlighting a study of messages and interviews by terrorist leaders. Will the White House step up and show us their own study concerning the messages they are delivering? Emphasis in original.

If Guantanamo is such a valuable recruiting tool, then why do al Qaeda’s leaders rarely mention it?

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has reviewed translations of 34 messages and interviews delivered by top al Qaeda leaders operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan (“Al Qaeda Central”), including Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, since January 2009. The translations were published online by the NEFA Foundation. Guantanamo is mentioned in only 3 of the 34 messages. The other 31 messages contain no reference to Guantanamo. And even in the three messages in which al Qaeda mentions the detention facility it is not a prominent theme.

During these infrequent interviews and communications, we must figure the recruiters are crafting their messages in a way that will garner results – more recruits. So, what are they using in their messaging?

By way of comparison, all of the following keywords are mentioned far more frequently: Israel/Israeli/Israelis (98 mentions), Jew/Jews (129), Zionist(s) (94), Palestine/Palestinian (200), Gaza (131), and Crusader(s) (322). (Note: Zionist is often paired with Crusader in al Qaeda’s rhetoric.)

Naturally, al Qaeda’s leaders also focus on the wars in Afghanistan (333 mentions) and Iraq (157). Pakistan (331), which is home to the jihadist hydra, is featured prominently, too. Al Qaeda has designs on each of these three nations and implores willing recruits to fight America and her allies there. Keywords related to other jihadist hotspots also feature more prominently than Gitmo, including Somalia (67 mentions), Yemen (18) and Chechnya (15).

To the point, closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility was and continues to be a political tool used by Obama’s political wing to build favor with the left. Certainly, closing Gitmo seems very important to lefty groups like Code Pink, but not so much for the terrorists.

I’ll go back to my question for the White House which will most likely be ignored, but maybe someone in the “real” media can ask the question. Will the White House step up and show us their own study concerning the messages terrorists are delivering?

As of mid-January, 173 terrorists from around the world remain held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Within the last year, 22 of the detainees were transferred to multiple locations including Algeria (2), Germany, Latvia, Spain (3), Cape Verde, Yemen, Bulgaria, Georgia, Switzerland (2), Albania and Hungary.

Without a doubt, this action – or inaction depending on how you look at it – tells us something about how the president approached his new job in January 2009. He went in like a lion, figuring a swipe of the magical executive order pen would set in motion his personal wish. Yet, reality must have struck hard as more and more aides reminded him of his responsibility to keep America safe.

The folks held in Gitmo were not friendly to the United States or any other non-Islamic western ally. If released, many would choose to go back to fighting the jihad. A Pentagon report from April 2009 indicated 14 percent of the former detainees were confirmed or suspected of going back to terrorist activities.

Of the more than 530 Guantanamo detainees transferred from Department of Defense custody at Guantanamo Bay, 27 were confirmed and 47 were suspected of reengaging in terrorist activity. Between December 2008 and March 2009, nine detainees were added to the confirmed list, six of who were previously on the suspected list.

Since April of 2009, about 68 more detainees were transferred from Gitmo to other countries.

The director of National Intelligence reported in December the intelligence community figured 81 previous detainees (13.5 percent) are confirmed to have gone back to terrorist activities and another 69 (11.5 percent) are suspected of doing so. Assuming detainees were originally sent to Gitmo because of terrorist activities – some think the “vast majority” of them were totally innocent – the recidivism rate does present a problem for the current and future administrations.

Although not a perfect solution, it seems Guantanamo Bay is the best option we have for enemy combatants who have been captured and detained.  I certainly do not have an answer to the current situation, but I know Obama announcing the closure of Gitmo was totally premature, irresponsible and politically motivated.

The Defense Authorization Bill signed by President Obama earlier this month has a provision that makes it almost impossible for the administration to move detainees to the United States for detention or trial. Obama has promised to seek repeal of those restrictions, but in effect, the new law keeps Guantanamo Bay’s detention facility for terrorists open for the foreseeable future.

Update: Interesting timing. Former Vice President Dick Cheney mentioned President Obama probably figured out many of the Bush policies on fighting terrorism were right. From The Hill, with a hat tip to Gateway Pundit.

In his first interview since undergoing major heart surgery last July, Cheney said he thinks Obama has been forced to rethink some of his national security positions now that he sits in the Oval Office.

“I think he’s learned that what we did was far more appropriate than he ever gave us credit for while he was a candidate. So I think he’s learned from experience. And part of that experience was the Democrats having a terrible showing last election.”

Cheney also asserted that Obama has learned that the prison at Guantanamo Bay simply cannot be closed, despite the promises he made while campaigning for the White House.

“I think he’s learned that he’s not going to be able to close Guantanamo,” Cheney said. “That it’s — if you didn’t have it, you’d have to create one like that. You’ve got to have some place to put terrorists who are combatants who are bound and determined to try to kill Americans.”

They won’t ever agree to have a high-profile trial like this at Guantanamo Bay, but you’ll remember that many of the terrorists at Camp Delta have been and it worked out just fine. Anyway, AP over at Hot Air figures it will be some other federal court, but thinks the Big Apple has the ability to handle security.

Bloomberg does have a point … it certainly will cost a ton of cash to pull this off, and within a week, residents will be pretty mad about the streets closing, detours and traffic hassles. Just ask them how they feel about presidential motorcades.

From the New York Daily News, confirmed by Major Garret last night.

The White House ordered the Justice Department Thursday night to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The dramatic turnabout came hours after Mayor Bloomberg said he would “prefer that they did it elsewhere” and then spoke to Attorney General Eric Holder.

“It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that’s too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood,” Bloomberg told reporters.

“There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City.”

Others noting include Volokh Conspiracy, Gateway Pundit and Michelle Malkin. Pamela Gellar at Atlas Shrugs also writing.

Hat tip to Morrissey at Hot Air.

The treatment and conditions terrorists at the Club Gitmo Resort and Spa receive is much better than locked-down conditions at federal Supermax sites, and possibly much better than state prisons across the country. Heck, Rush Limbaugh created or saved a few jobs with an entire merchandise collection for Club Gitmo, and they still have T-shirts available.

Obama and Democrats have been running around the world apologizing for our actions, and detention facilities including Guantanamo Bay. As far as they are concerned, Camp Delta displays the worst of what America is, and supposedly the rest of the world sees it that way too. Until of course, we start to see the soon-to-come news reports about what life in a Supermax facility is like for the prisoners living the life today.

Whoops.

Newsweek suggests Obama may be stuck with the terrible reality that detainees will need to remain in Cuba for a long, long time. But right from the first paragraph of the story, on display is the still unbelievable reality the current administration considers national security a political matter first.

President Obama’s decision to suspend sending any detainees being held in the Guantánamo Bay detention facility back to Yemen was “politically, a no-brainer,” a senior administration official tells NEWSWEEK.

“Make no mistake: we will close Guantánamo prison, which has damaged our national-security interests and become a tremendous recruiting tool for Al Qaeda,” Obama said Tuesday right after he announced he was stopping further transfers to Yemen.

But the new pessimism is the result of a confluence of unanticipated developments, all of which relate to Yemen, a country that is home to about 92 Guantánamo detainees, nearly half the facility’s current population of 198.

During the next three year, we will continue to hear Obama is committed to close the facility, but will be unable to meet his goal due to circumstances beyond his control. The measurement of success dictated by the left and the state-run media will be Obama’s intentions, not the results.

At the end of the article, we get to a really important fact … it’s damn cold in Illinois.

But the final irony is that many of the detainees may not even want to be transferred to Thomson and could conceivably even raise their own legal roadblocks to allow them to stay at Gitmo.

[Marc] Falkoff [a lawyer representing some Gitmo detainees from Yemen] notes that many of his clients, while they clearly want to go home, are at least being held under Geneva Convention conditions in Guantánamo. At Thomson, he notes, the plans call for them to be thrown into the equivalent of a “supermax” security prison under near-lockdown conditions.

“As far as our clients are concerned, it’s probably preferable for them to remain at Guantánamo,” he says.

No kidding?

As a reminder, here’s Crowder’s visit to Guantanamo Bay back in November. Maybe Steven will head to the Supermax ADX Florence, Colorado facility and provide the world with a report on the conditions there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtrzcBMbVXs

In increase could also just be a reflection of time. Maybe they are taking less “time off” before jumping into the game or getting bored trying to work in the real world. The recidivism rate can only get worse as those remaining in Guantanamo must obviously be more dangerous than those previously released. From Reuters over at Yahoo! News. (Hat tip to Mark Levin who just mentioned the article on his show.)

A classified Pentagon assessment shows about one in five detainees released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay has joined or is suspected of joining militant groups like al Qaeda, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

… More than 560 detainees from Guantanamo have been released, the vast majority of them by the Bush administration.

An Obama administration official said the White House had received “no information that suggests that any of the detainees transferred by this administration have returned to the fight.”

Six Yemeni detainees were sent home days before the December 25 attempted bombing. There are 198 detainees left at Guantanamo, which once held 750, Pentagon officials said. Among those still being held there, roughly 91 are Yemeni.

If 560 have been released and 20 percent are going back to the fight, that’s 100 terrorists – hard-core terrorists – back on the street. That percentage is certain to go higher as time goes on, especially if we continue to release terrorists back to countries like Yemen who are in no way responsible enough to monitor them.

Earlier this morning, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air noted a UK Times Online story on the (at least) one dozen Gitmo detainees who returned to fight in Yemen.

Update: AP at Hot Air Steve at Sweetness & Light picked up on the 20 percent story last night too.

Are Americans comfortable with the rehabilitation programs offered to terrorists returned to Saudi Arabia?

In the program we see the Saudis providing a private jumbo jet to bring inmates home from Guantanamo Bay, giving them a hero’s welcome, then sending them to a converted holiday resort for re-education. Then, the men are set free.

How would this work for sex offenders in the United States?

Some, including Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air, are suggesting the President Obama’s administration is rethinking their policy on trying to return terrorists to Yemen for detention, monitoring and rehabilitation. To be fair, it looks like their original intent was to send six back, see how it goes, and send more if things went well.

From the Washington Post article noted above.

The six Yemenis, along with four Afghans, will be transferred out of Guantanamo Bay in coming days. The release follows months of high-level meetings between the government in Yemen and senior American officials, as well as a visit to the country last week by Stephen R. Kappes, the deputy director of the CIA, sources said. The CIA declined to comment.

The above article indicated the United States and Yemen were making progress towards getting more detainees home to Yemen, but this phase – sending six back in mid-December – was to be closely monitored even though US officials had a sense things were going well.

December 25 put quite the wrinkle in future plans.

The New York Times, reporting from sunny and warm Hawaii …

… a senior administration official said Thursday that Mr. Obama’s interagency team had already decided quietly several weeks ago that the security situation in Yemen was too volatile to transfer any more detainees beyond six who were sent home in December. The government concluded it had to release those six because it was about to lose habeas corpus hearings in court that would order them freed.

So, we have an administration now saying they made the decision weeks ago not to send any more terrorists back to Yemen because the country is insecure – in other words a terrorist hot-spot – but they elected to send back six of them immediately due to a friggin’ legal technicality!

Are you kidding me? Were these habeas corpus hearings in a civil or military courtroom? Yeah, yeah … I know that habeas corpus is not a “legal technicality” but I think we are at war and this crap is not good. It’s not a war to these novices, it’s something to be dealt with by polices officers and the courts. You asked for it … you got it.

Those six returned back to Yemen were picked up and sent to Gitmo for a pretty good reason. It’s not like that’s where everyone went, those were some pretty evil folks who want to kill us. Got that?

Update: Andrew McCarthy has a new post over at National Review Online Monday morning discussing this same topic. Since he’s a lot more familiar with this territory than I am, go read his post please. An excerpt…

The courts have no more right to tell the president to release an enemy combatant than a president has to tell a judge how to rule on the validity of a contract. The president’s war powers are more than adequately checked by Congress, which could close Gitmo and require the repatriation of all enemy combatants tomorrow if it were disposed to do so. The courts should have no say in the disposition of alien enemy combatants in wartime. If they try to have a say, they should be ignored. Courts and presidents refuse to enforce unconstitutional acts of Congress, and Congress and the courts rein in unconstitutional acts of presidents. Unconstitutional judicial acts must likewise be checked by the other branches.

For too long, we have allowed one branch of government to override all constitutional restraints. That practice is not just restricting our freedom; it is now threatening our lives.

Thomas Joscelyn at The Weekly Standard posted on this subject yesterday afternoon and brings up some good questions. For this piece, Joscelyn focuses on the two detainees who were released to Somaliland, a country the United States – or anyone else for that matter – does not recognize or have official diplomatic relations with. That second link references Adam Brickley’s piece earlier yesterday.

From Brickley’s piece…

The Department of Justice announced Sunday that 12 detainees from Guantanamo Bay would be repatriated to Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somaliland.

That we are sending these people back to largely-lawless Afghanistan and terrorist-hotbed Yemen is bad, bad news. However, it’s the third country mentioned that’s really bothersome.

Technically speaking, Somaliland does not exist.

Don’t get me wrong — the Republic of Somaliland is a very real entity. It has a government that has been functioning relatively smoothly since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991. The problem, however, is that every nation on Earth (including the U.S.) recognizes the area as a non-independent part of Somalia. There are no diplomatic ties between Somaliland and…well…anyone, and the government is universally viewed as illegitimate.

And we are going to trust these people with two jihadist detainees from Guantanamo Bay?

On to Jocelyn, who writes about Abdullahi Sudi Arale.

In June 2007, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman called Arale a “high-value detainee.” That phrase was reserved for less than twenty detainees. As far as I know, the U.S. has never transferred a “high-value detainee” from its custody. One “high-value detainee,” Ahmed Ghailani, was transferred to New York for trial. But he is, of course, still detained by the U.S. Does this mean that Arale was the first “high-value detainee” ever transferred from American custody?

I’ll let you head over to Hot Air and Blackfive since Ed and Uncle Jimbo respectively have us all up-to-date with no comment from me needed. (It’s late, I’m tired…)

From Ed Morrissey…

Now he’s gone back to an area known to be a haven for terrorists — and under the control of a government with which the US doesn’t do business.  How exactly did that happen?  Somaliland is a breakaway piece of Somalia that no one recognizes.  Does the US usually extradite prisoners to jurisdictions that we do not recognize and in the absence of an extradition treaty?

The only thing more foolish than releasing terrorists is to release them in the middle of failed states.

From Uncle Jimbo, here and here.

This is not some poor bastard who was scarfed up in Afghanistan and sold to us by some warlord. We conducted a raid into Somalia specifically to capture this guy and now he is just back on the street? I kinda doubt it was the military changing their minds that he was a High Value Detainee, so we have the Attorney General and his friends in the terrorist fellow travelers camp to thank for this. Remind me again why any operator in the field would ever bring one of these bastards in alive again. Grab ‘em, give them a couple hours of field interrogation and then an unfortunate, failed escape attempt. This administration cannot be trusted with our security.

From the Washington Times this morning, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) is saying Obama may have some issues getting his way.

Congress probably will be able to stop the Obama administration from bringing Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees to U.S. soil, the Republican leader of the House said Thursday.

Rep. John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said that at least two pieces of legislation would have to go through Congress before the government can move any of the detainees to an Illinois prison – and he doubted either bill would pass. …

U.S. law bars Guantanamo detainees from being brought onto U.S. soil unless they are going to be prosecuted. Mr. Boehner suggested that provision would need to be changed.

The minority leader said the administration would also need to get congressional approval to fund the prison project.

What will we see the Obama administration pull to get their way? You know, bribes hidden in legislation and Chicago-brand political threats.

Just the normal crap…

Those Gitmo apologists including the president should be ashamed. Those working in Gitmo should be praised. Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtrzcBMbVXs

Malkin picked up on this video as did Hot Air.