"U.S. Congress blocks Guantanamo closure"

[Clio the Leo]

Flashback....

U.S. Congress blocks Guantanamo closure

(DECEMBER 23, 2010) WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers have effectively blocked President Barack Obama’s efforts to close the controversial terror prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by approving a Pentagon budge that forbids spending money on the move.

After months of wrangling, both the House and Senate Wednesday approved a 725.9-billion-dollar defense spending plan for the fiscal year that began October 1, 2010.

Included in the bill is language that makes it virtually impossible to close the prison by building a substitute prison or relocating prisoners to the United States.

The budget prohibits the use of defense funding "to construct or modify a facility within the United States to house detainees transferred from the Guantanamo detention facility" or "to transfer, release or assist in the transfer or release of Guantanamo detainees to or within the United States."

Given the difficulty the US has had finding third countries to take former detainees, even those cleared of wrong-doing, not moving them to a new prison leaves the administration few options.



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Congress+blocks+Guantanamo+closure/4019815/story.html#ixzz1Fy447aSD

[tekisui]

1. Democratic Majority Congress shanks Obama on one of his key campaign promises.

Obama's lack of leadership failed to stop it.

[dennis4868]

2. Get this article out of here....

this goes against the DU narrative that it's all Obama's fault and he can do whatever he wants without congress' approval....please delete this article at once....you are making us look bad.

[Tx4obama]

3. There's a prison in Illinois that is already being updated.

After the remodel is completed...
my guess is that Obama will send military planes in the middle of the night and fly them on in.
There's not that many folks there in Gitmo - what would it take two or three transports?

And to ensure that they can't be transferred back to Gitmo, Obama should order that it be burnt!

[Radical Activist]

4. So do we help Obama pressure Congress or form the circular firing squad?

Because it would be productive if we helped Obama toward his progressive goal. Or we could continue stabbing him in the back with Green party talking points like at least half the left pundits and bloggers have done so far.

[frylock]

5. and you remember all those come to jesus meetings obama held with dems to ensure this didn't happen?

nope. me neither.

[tekisui]

6. CO-EQUAL BRANCHES!!!!1111!1!!

Failure of leadership is how this happened. Obama rolled over and let the Blue Dogs walk all over him.

[Clio the Leo]

10. I remember Gitmo funding falling victim to the DADT repeal....

... as I'm sure you do...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=433&topic_id=570065

(Obviously not saying I oppose the DADT repeal, but that's exactly what happened.)

[Arkana]

12. Not much you can do when even the most liberal members of your caucus

are freaking out and doing the NIMBY dance on the floors of the Senate and the House.

They were all too terrified of being labeled "soft on terrorism". Both Reid AND Pelosi told him they wouldn't do it. Congress caved, not Obama. He's the President, he's not a magician.

[AtomicKitten]

7. K&R

[ClarkUSA]

8. Thanks for the truth. President Obama does not possess a magic wand, after all.

[Cali_Democrat]

9. Then Obama should let them go free

Some will say that shouldn't be done because the Gitmo prisoners are terrorists that threaten the US. Well that's too bad.

The main reason why the politicians fear real trials is because many of the prisoners were tortured while in US custody. They were tortured in order to extract information regarding a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda. As we all know, that link turned out to be non-existent. The hope was that the information would be used to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq.

The problem is that this would all come out in a real court and evidence extracted through torture won't be permissible in a real court. The prisoners would then be let go since most of the evidence that would be used against them in court would be bogus or extracted via torture.

Basically the Obama Administration and the the politicians in Washington fear real trials and due process because they don't approve of the likely outcome...the prisoners would walk free because we tortured them.

Even if they are a threat, we fucked up by violating their human rights and we have to bite the bullet. Let that be a lesson to us regarding the violation of human rights.

Let them go.

[Arkana]

11. But it's Obama's fault, got it? OBAMA'S FAULT!