Today in Washington D. C. - May 6, 2009 - Do you want a GITMO Detainee in Your State?

Again the Senate resumes consideration of S. 896, a housing bill, which will also provide more money and borrowing authority to the FDIC. This morning, there will be a series of roll call votes on amendments to the housing bill, followed by a vote on final passage. Yesterday, the Senate rejected three amendments to the bill, but adopted amendments from Sens. John Ensign (R-NV) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) outlining oversight plans for the Treasury’s public-private asset purchase program.

GITMO remains an issue: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), now ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, sent a follow-up letter to Holder today, asking why he has not yet answered his letter from a month ago seeking a legal rationale for administration plans to release detainees trained at terrorist camps into the United States. Sen. Sessions wrote in the letter, “It would be both dangerous and contrary to our immigration laws to admit trained foreign militants into our civilian population. . . . It is the job of the Attorney General to uphold and defend the rule of law and to defend this Nation against terrorist influences. . . . Nonetheless you appear to be pressing for the release of trained militants who are inadmissible under our immigration laws and who have demonstrated hostility toward Western culture and even basic women’s rights.”

Democrats are also looking for answers from the administration on Guantanamo. Politico reports, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now demanding specifics on where the prisoners will go and what will be done with them. Reid’s concerns, laid out Tuesday afternoon at a news conference, come a day after House appropriators yanked $81 million requested to help close the facility in Cuba.”

Meanwhile, everywhere the administration looks to send detainees, it is running into problems or outright resistance. Local communities are beginning to announce their opposition to having detainees either housed nearby or outright released into their communities. Last week, officials in Stafford County, Virginia, expressed concerns about detainees possibly being held at the Marine Corps base in Quantico. The Miami Herald reported over the weekend that people and officials in the towns surrounding the U.S. Naval Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, are opposed to having detainees moved there. And a state senator in Louisiana is moving a resolution asking Congress to keep detainees out of the Bayou State.

Yesterday, we reported the negative response by Germany to accept between 10 and 20 detainees and Deutsche Welle reports today that there is resistance to this request among lawmakers there in several different areas of the country. The AP reports that the administration hopes that Saudi Arabia will accept Yemeni detainees into its terrorist rehabilitation centers. But, according to the AP story, “In an embarrassing episode for the kingdom, Saudi officials announced in February that 11 former Guantanamo detainees who went through the rehab program are now on its government’s most wanted terrorist list for their connections to al-Qaida.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today, “Americans want to know that on the issue of Guantanamo the administration is as concerned about safety as it is about symbolism. They’re concerned about the administration’s plans for releasing or transferring some of the most dangerous terrorists alive. They want to know that these terrorists won’t end up back on the battlefield or in their backyards. At the very least, they should know as much about the administration’s plans for these men as our European critics do.”

So, the question of the day is - Do YOU want a GITMO detainee housed or released in Your State?

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