As President Obama and Republicans fight over detainees at Guantanamo Bay, a new concern is brewing: What to do with extremists captured in the new fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria?
The Obama administration has lately been in a rush to bypass Congress and empty Guantanamo by executive order, releasing or transferring 44 detainees in the past 18 months. The prison’s population is down to 122 — the lowest since it opened on Jan. 11, 2002. Meanwhile, Obama has opted for a policy of killing suspected terrorists and has sent the few who have been captured during his time in office to civilian courts.
Lawmakers are waiting to see what the White House proposes before acting on a new authorization to use military force that could also provide a legal basis for holding captured Islamic State fighters.
“We will submit language after we’ve had an opportunity to consult with members of Congress to maximize the likelihood that we’ll be able to get both Democratic and Republican support for the bill,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday.
A White House spokeswoman would not address the specific question of how any proposal might address detainees, referring reporters to the Pentagon.
“We do not have plans to detain anybody for an extended period of time under the current authorization,” Army Lt. Col. Myles Caggins, a Pentagon spokesman for detainee policy, said.
Any suspected Islamic State fighters who come into U.S. hands would only be held long enough to transfer them to Iraqi custody, he said.
“Based on our current advisory role for Operation Inherent Resolve, the Defense Department does not expect or have the authority to conduct any long-term detentions in Iraq,” he said.
But experts say it’s unrealistic to suggest that the United States won’t need some process in the future for holding captured enemy fighters, even if the administration overcomes GOP opposition and shutters the prison at Guantanamo.
Though many people consider Guantanamo more of a problem than a solution to that issue, it would be worse if the idea of detaining the enemy in wartime fell out of favor, said Charles “Cully” Stimson, who oversaw Guantanamo as deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs in the George W. Bush administration and is now a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
That would leave killing enemy troops as the only alternative means of taking them out of the fight, he said.
“I’m not concerned with the ZIP code. I’m concerned with the capability,” Stimson told the Washington Examiner.
A security and intelligence analyst at the Brookings Institution said the issue of Islamic State detainees has far-reaching implications. “Your question is great because it could also help shape policy, since the administration may not yet have thought about it much either,” said Brookings fellow Michael O’Hanlon.
