Hillary Clinton made an urgent plea to President Obama to step up his efforts to close Guantanamo Bay just weeks before she left the State Department, writing, "We need a White House lead." The confidential January 2013 memo about the military detention center was obtained by The Huffington Post through a FOIA request, reports Ryan J. Reilly:
"We must signal to our old and emerging allies alike that we remain serious about turning the page of GTMO and the practices of the prior decade," Clinton wrote in the document, using the military abbreviation for the U.S. naval base. "The revitalization of transfers, efforts to prosecute some detainees in federal courts, a longer-term approach to the return of Yemeni detainees, and credible periodic reviews would send the signal and renew a credible detention policy."
She also encouraged Obama to consider moving Guantanamo detainees into the country. "If the law permits, I recommend that you consider transfers to the United States for pre-trial detention, trial, and sentences," Clinton wrote.
Clinton worried that support for closing Gitmo would fade during Obama’s second term and laid out a three-point plan to rejuvenate the administration's effort following a congressional focus on restricting transfers of the detainees. She also advised Obama to centralize the effort’s leadership by appointing a White House official to "lead all GTMO efforts."
Weeks after the memo was written, and after Obama failed to mention Guantanamo in his inauguration address, a mass hunger strike by detainees would draw attention to the situation. Following a raid to regain control of the facility, military officials found a detainee “almost dying because of hunger and thirst." The Pentagon's Muslim advisor on the base predicted more than one detainee would die.