The administration moved on its own quickly and was in a way using a page from the Bush administration playbook of cutting out Congress and cutting out the Red Cross and doing what it thought was right at the moment and telling people afterwards.
Yes, they did not comply with the 30-day statutory notice requirement. The White House and Pentagon said the President had the executive authority to do this particularly because it was this delicate swap for a prisoner of war. And they chose to not notify them until the actual exchange was underway but it shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone. We’ve known that this administration has been talking about a Qatari deal for years now and identities of these five men; this is not something that came out of the blue. On Saturday when I saw the C-17 on the landing strip at Guantanamo it seemed to me this was the deal that was going down. But it was a surprise to the degree that they didn’t get notice and I have to tell you, it was also a surprise to the Red Cross. They told me this morning they didn’t get their notice or have an opportunity to do an exit interview with these five men. What I think it says is that the administration moved on its own quickly and was in a way using a page from the Bush administration playbook of cutting out Congress and cutting out the Red Cross and doing what it thought was right at the moment and telling people afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kqlfYATFbk
Cross-posted at The Lid
