...Shayana Kadidal, the lead attorney for Guantánamo cases with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the Algerian detainee, expressed frustration with the Obama administration for not trying to take advantage of the litigation to get one or both of those detainees out, too. He portrayed the Justice Department’s resistance as symptomatic of the outgoing administration’s ambivalence that, in his view, led Mr. Obama not to fight congressionally imposed transfer restrictions that blocked him from carrying out his plan to close the prison.
Still, Mr. Kadidal noted that after the administration’s push to get most of the detainees on the transfer list out by the time it left office, his center now has only four clients left of the dozens it once had, in addition to coordinating habeas corpus litigation with other volunteer lawyers. The flurry of departures of fellow prisoners or fellow lawyers, he said, made this closing moment “poignant” for those left behind. ...