Ashton Carter Following In Chuck Hagel's Gitmo Footsteps?

by JASmius



Translation: Carter now knows why Hagel departed the Obamagon: The job description of SecDef in this Regime is the worst combination of lackey and fall guy:

The White House believes that Carter is unwilling to be accountable for the transfer of Guantánamo detainees and their conduct post-release, even to the point of defying the president’s policy on the detention facility, a White House source told the Daily Beast. …

But it is Carter’s signature that leads to a detainee’s release. The complaint heard at the Pentagon is Carter and the Defense Department are not moving fast enough for a White House that hopes to have the question of closing the facility answered by the end of its term. So far, Carter has only signed off on a handful of detainees at one time and has waited weeks to act on those cases.

In other words, Carter is looking at those decisions through a military/national security lens, and the White House is looking at them through a politicoideological lens.  Beats me how the former could have made that mistake.

As one defense official explained, Carter “is definitely under pressure… The White House, if it had its way, would like to see more regular signatures.”

And why can O not have his way?  Does not Carter serve at his pleasure?  Supposedly Congress has something to do with it.

There’s even speculation that if the president follows through on his threat to veto the defense budget bill to win changes on detainee policy, he will ask that the law be amended so that the president, not the defense secretary, has the final say on detainee transfers.

Yeah, but Obama is the law in this country, right?  His pen, phone, and putter the three branches of government?  If he wants that law amended, can he not simply sign an executive decree doing so?  Surely he's not getting soft in his old age.

If so, O might have some difficulty getting congressional Republicans to go along with his "empty Gitmo NOW!" preference, although the threat of another government shutdown beating might well wring that concession out of them.

Otherwise it's all on Ashton Carter, the man trapped in the middle by design.

All I can tell you, Ash, is what Super Chicken used to tell Fred The Lion....



If he didn't before, he sure does now.

Sucker.