On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump vowed that he would get “tough” with radical Islamic extremists, and repeatedly vowed to refill the military’s terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay with “bad dudes,” after former President Barack Obama virtually emptied the place out.
It appears that Trump is close to following through with that promise. A draft executive order is circulating the White House that would instruct the Pentagon to house future prisoners from the Islamic State group in Gitmo, The New York Times reported.
There has been some concern in political circles over what such an order could mean for the war against the Islamic State. Some believe that it could jeopardize our entire fight against the terror organization.
“If a judge says the Sept. 11 authorization does not cover such a detention, it would not only make that detention unlawful, it would weaken the legal basis for the entire war against the Islamic State,” Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor, told The Times.
As The Times noted, Congress never actually authorized the use of force against the Islamic State. The Obama administration used the already existing use of force authorization against Al Qaeda, which dated form 2001, arguing the the Islamic State was a splinter cell of Al Qaeda.
Trump would most likely be able to get Congress to authorize use of force against the Islamic State group, as Republicans control both houses of Congress, and it would be political suicide to publicly state you were against fighting terrorism.
You can read the draft order next: