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 "Pissed" At The Obama Administration - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 6/12/09 — Friday, June 12, 2009 —  Q I have two questions, Robert. First, how do you respond to the charge that in the hurry to make the President's deadline of closing Guantanamo within a year, some decisions are being made without proper consultation of -- a senior State Department official yesterday said that the British government was "pissed" that they had not been consulted about Uighurs going to Bermuda.MR. GIBBS: I think they were -- if I'm not mistaken, and I don't want to parse the word "pissed," but I think they -- (laughter) -- Q It was their administration's word, not mine. MR. GIBBS: But I think if I read most of the stories correctly, they were not pleased with the government of Bermuda. Q They were "pissed" at the Obama administration, is what we have been told by the State Department. MR. GIBBS: Well, maybe I misread many of the stories -- Q Maybe they were "pissed" at both of you. (Laughter.) MR. GIBBS: There may be a lot of that. I don't know. I think that, again -- Q But we're not getting into that, the issue of just the fact that you are trying to make this deadline, for that reason, there has been criticism that the decision was made to close it before there was a full plan of what to do with all the detainees. The decisions are being made, as you say, on a case by case basis. The other day you couldn't or wouldn't say what would happen to Ghailani if he's found not guilty. Obviously, the British government is not happy -- regardless, of who they're not happy with, whether it's Obama, Bermuda, or both. Clearly, you are trying to make this deadline and decisions are being made before there is completely a plan in place for everything. MR. GIBBS: Well, I think I would obviously take a -- I don't think that's true that any of these decisions are being made in a hasty way. But keep in mind -- let's take, for instance, as I had mentioned here, five of the six transferees just this week were required by a federal court. The Uighurs that we've discussed, five of them were transferred in '05 or '06 to Albania. I don't know if that was a hasty decision. Since they've no record of acting violent since that transfer, I don't think that it would be considered hasty. A court ruled that of the remaining 17, one was -- one should not be labeled an enemy combatant. And the Bush administration labeled, after that, the other 16 being held as not enemy combatants. They've been waiting for a location for resettlement. I don't think moving them was hasty, and I don't think the decisions that are being made are hasty. As I said earlier this week, I think bringing somebody to trial after committing a crime 11 years ago indicted on 286 charges, responsible for taking part, allegedly, in the death of 224 individuals, including 12 Americans in 1998; since it's 2009, I'm not sure many people would think that's hasty. The President and his team are going through this process in a very methodical way, understanding that it's complex, but that the benefits to our security and to our image in the world demand it. International Relations | Obama Administration | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | United Kingdom | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: International Relations, Obama Administration, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, United Kingdom, War on Terror, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:36:00 PM
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