Today in Washington D. C. - May 20, 2009 - Senate Bars Funds to "Transfer, Release or Incarcerate" GITMO Detainees Within the U.S.

Yesterday, the Senate passed H.R. 627, a bill to place restrictions on credit card companies and confirmed Gary Gensler as a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Today the Senate resumed consideration of H.R. 2346, the fiscal 2009 war supplemental appropriations bill. The Senate did vote 90-6 on an amendment to bar the use of federal funds to “transfer, release or incarcerate” Guantanamo detainees “to or within the United States.” All the “no” votes came from Democrats: Dick Durbin (IL), Tom Harkin (IA), Pat Leahy (VT), Carl Levin (MI), Jack Reed (RI), and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI). Three Democrats did not vote: Byrd (WV), Kennedy (MA), and Rockefeller (WV). Other amendments expected to the bill include ones from Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) concerning prosecutions over interrogation techniques and from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) concerning IMF funding.

Yesterday, The AP writes, “President Barack Obama's promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison suffered a blow Tuesday when his allies in the Senate said they would refuse to finance the move until the administration delivers a satisfactory plan for what to do with the detainees there.” CNN’s Dana Bash reported last night that closing Guantanamo “is such a high priority for President Obama” that he signed the order to do so on his second day in office. Bash called the announcement to strip the funding yesterday “an about-face for Senate Democrats and a rare slap at President Obama.” Well, I guess then the slap has now happened!

And The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza writes, “The practical execution of [closing Guantanamo], however, has run into a number of political hurdles. Republicans . . . have used the Gitmo closure as evidence that Obama is not fundamentally serious about the defense of the homeland.”

“FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress on Wednesday that bringing Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States would pose a number of possible risks, even if they were kept in maximum-security prisons,” according to the AP.
· Asked by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) if detainees could safely be kept in maximum security prisons in the U.S., “Mueller balked at Nadler's suggestion, noting that in some instances imprisoned gang leaders have run their gangs from inside prisons.”
· AP: “‘The concerns we have about individuals who may support terrorism being in the United States run from concerns about providing financing, radicalizing others,’ Mueller said, as well as ‘the potential for individuals undertaking attacks in the United States.’”

The former commander of the USS Cole, Kirk Lippold, put out a statement on Mueller’s testimony, saying, “FBI Director Mueller knows the complexity of the detainee problem and comprehends the dangers that the GITMO detainees pose to America if they are brought onto our soil.”

And there’s was more confusion about what the administration plans to do with the Uighur detainees. It had been reported that they were to be released into the United States, possibly in Virginia. Sen Jim Webb (D_VA) has previously said "NO!" Today, the Financial Times writes, “The White House originally intended to implement the recommendation [to release Uighur detainees into the U.S.] in spite of objections from the homeland security department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. One official said the administration had over-ruled the department and FBI, who had ‘screamed bloody murder’, but was now wavering in the face of intense pressure from Congress. Dean Boyd, a justice department spokesman, said: ‘We have no announcements on whether any final decision has been made with respect to the disposition of the Uighurs or other detainees at Guantánamo, or on the claim of interagency -disagreements.’”

Despite all of this, Michele Flournoy, President Obama’s Pentagon policy chief “says it's unrealistic to think that no detainees will come to the U.S., and that the U.S. can't ask allies to take detainees while refusing to take on the same burden,” according to an AP report. She told reporters this morning “I think there will be some that need to end up in the United States.” Maybe, she needs one released to live in her own home.

Sen. McConnell said on the floor this morning, “In my view, these men are exactly where they belong: locked up in a safe and secure prison, and isolated many miles away from the American people. Guantanamo is a secure state-of-the-art facility. It’s got courtrooms for military commissions. Everyone who visits is impressed with it. Even the administration acknowledges that Guantanamo is humane and well-run. Americans want these men kept out of their backyards and off the battlefield. Guantanamo guarantees it.”

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