Today in Washington, D.C. - May 21, 2010 - Congress Still Not On Board With Closing Gitmo

The Senate is in recess until 2 PM on Monday when it will take up the fiscal year 2010 supplemental appropriations bill, H.R. 4899.

Last night, the Senate voted 59-39 to pass Democrats’ flawed financial regulation bill. Sen. McConnell described the bill yesterday: “[I]t uses this crisis as yet another opportunity to expand the cost and size and reach of government. It punishes Main Street for the sins of Wall Street. Worst of all, it ignores the root of the crisis by doing nothing to reform [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac].”

Prior to final passage, the Senate voted 60-40 to invoke cloture on the Dodd substitute amendment, which had been the basis for debate.  Three Republicans voted for cloture which cut-off debate on the bill.  They were  Scott Brown (MA),   Susan Collins (ME), and Olympia Snowe (ME). The Senate then voted 60-39 to waive the Budget Act for the bill with Republican Charles Grassley (R-IA) joining the prior three and the Democrats voting for the bill.

A year ago today with his plans to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay under fire, President Obama gave a major speech at the National Archives defending his administration’s national security plan and criticizing many of the Bush administration’s decisions on national security. Obama renewed his pledge to close Guantanamo, saying, “[T]he record is clear:  Rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security.  It is a rallying cry for our enemies.  It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that operates in scores of countries.  By any measure, the costs of keeping it open far exceed the complications involved in closing it.  That's why I argued that it should be closed throughout my campaign, and that is why I ordered it closed within one year.”

Obama added, “Now let me be blunt.  There are no neat or easy answers here.  I wish there were.  But I can tell you that the wrong answer is to pretend like this problem will go away if we maintain an unsustainable status quo.  As President, I refuse to allow this problem to fester.  I refuse to pass it on to somebody else.  It is my responsibility to solve the problem.  Our security interests will not permit us to delay.  Our courts won't allow it.  And neither should our conscience.”

But the president’s first deadline, a year after his executive order ordering the facility be closed, came and went this January with the facility still open. At a press conference two days after he was inaugurated, Obama declared, “Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now.” Asked by reporters 6 months later whether the administration would still meet their self-imposed deadline, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “Absolutely.”

Yet it’s now a year after President Obama doubled down on his decision to close the facility, and they still have not managed to do that or figure out what to do with all the terror detainees held there.

Not only that, The New York Times reports today, “The House Armed Services Committee has dealt a blow to President Obama’s hopes to shutter the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by unanimously approving legislation that would prohibit creating a detention center inside the United States. The administration had asked Congress to approve about $350 million to buy and renovate a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Ill. The White House plan was to empty Guantánamo and transfer its detainees to Illinois — including 48 who would be held without trial as wartime prisoners. But late Wednesday, the House committee unanimously approved a defense bill for 2011 that bans spending money to build or modify any facility inside the United States to house Guantánamo detainees . . . .”

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said in January, “Al Qaeda terrorists were at war with us long before we started putting them in Gitmo. They won’t lay down their arms or run out of grievances if we move it to Illinois. If it’s not Guantanamo, it’s something else. So it’s hard to see how moving Guantanamo would make any difference to our critics either at home or abroad. But it’s easy to see how it would make America less safe — starting with the fact that the moment terrorists set foot on U.S. soil they would likely gain many of the same rights and privileges of U.S. citizens, including possibly the right to sue their way to freedom. This alone should be reason enough to keep them off our shores and far away from our communities. . . . The fact is, as long as we remain at war with Al Qaeda and until we hear a better option, Guantanamo is the perfect place for terrorists.”

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Tags: Washington, D.C., US Senate, US Congress, Dodd Bill, financial regulation, GITMO, terrorist trials To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!