2/1/2018

GUANTANAMO/STATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s order to keep open the Guantanamo Bay prison camp formalized a yearlong push to halt his predecessor’s efforts to close the detention center, but raises tough questions about how to manage the costly facility and its inmates.
The State Department directed diplomats at its missions around the world to inform their host governments of Mr. Trump’s decision, a U.S. official said, a signal the administration is bracing for criticism from allies who object to the prison. The directive, delivered Tuesday, said the move wasn’t a significant policy shift on detentions, the official said.
State and Pentagon officials said there were no plans to send new detainees to Guantanamo…No detainee has been sent to Guantanamo in nearly a decade… A State Department office in charge of negotiating prisoner transfers to other countries has been vacant for a year. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has proposed eliminating it as part of a revamp, suggesting no clear resolution for most or all of the remaining detainees.
Experts said Mr. Trump’s order doesn’t direct individuals caught on the battlefield to be sent to Guantanamo; nor does it prevent detainees from being transferred out.
The new order requires the Defense secretary, who is now Jim Mattis, to recommend criteria for handling individuals caught on the battlefield, leaving him with discretion on the prison’s future.
Mr. Trump’s directive was criticized by lawyers, human-rights experts and lawmakers.”

-Felicia Schwartz and Gordon Lubold, “Trump’s Guantanamo Move Keeps Prison and 41 Detainees in Limbo,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 1, 2018 07:47pm