A new report reveals how the Pentagon has thwarted the Obama administration’s efforts to close Guantánamo by imposing bureaucratic hurdles to delay or derail the release of prisoners. According to Reuters, a former official compared negotiating prisoner releases with the Pentagon to “punching a pillow.” Pentagon delays forced four Afghan prisoners to spend an additional four years in Guantánamo after they were approved for transfer. The Pentagon has refused to provide photographs and basic documentation to foreign governments willing to take prisoners and barred those delegations from spending the night at Guantánamo, making it much harder for them to interview prisoners as part of the transfer process. In one case, the Pentagon refused to release medical records for a hunger-striking Yemeni prisoner to a delegation from a country that was considering taking him in. To this day, the prisoner, Ba Odah, remains at Guantánamo, five years after he was cleared for release. The Pentagon still refuses to provide his complete medical file, even though his attorney says he has given full consent.