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May 20, 2009

Senate Dems refuse to allocate money to close Gitmo

Rick Moran
And the hypocrisy continues...

Not wanting terrorists released on American soil any more than their Republican counterparts (or even being held in mainland prisons), Senate Democrats defeated a measure that would have funded the closing of the Guantanamo prison.

For a political party that ran on a platform that demanded the closing of Gitmo, they sure have a curious way of going about doing it. Since the president refuses to make a commitment in telling us how he is going to close down the prison camp, the Democrats don't want to be caught with their pants down if Obama blindsides them by doing something really, really stupid - like setting prisoners up in American cities and give them welfare.

Instead, Democrats prefer to wait until Obama gets around to making his rhetoric match the reality of several hundred very bad people looking for a new home. Shailagh Murray of the Washington Post explains:

Under pressure from Republicans and concerned about the politics of relocating terrorism suspects to U.S. soil, Senate Democrats rejected President Obama's request for funding to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and vowed to withhold federal dollars until the president decides the fate of the facility's 240 detainees.

The decision represents a potentially serious setback for Obama, who as a candidate vowed to close Guantanamo and who signed an executive order beginning the process soon after he took office.

Obama had asked Congress for $80 million to close the facility, located on a U.S. military base in Cuba, by early 2010. Many Democrats see Guantanamo as an affront to the U.S. legal system and a symbol of Bush-era detainee policies, but they are increasingly wary about the next step, as yet undefined by Obama, of relocating the terrorism suspects who are detained at the site.

As recently as last week, Senate Democrats had hoped to preserve a portion of Obama's Guantanamo funding request. But their resolve crumbled in the face of a concerted Republican campaign warning of dire consequences if some detainees ended up in prisons or other facilities in the United States, a possibility that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has acknowledged.

Other countries don't want them - even their home countries. The American people definitely don't want them on American soil. In short, there is nowhere for them to go. But the chances of Obama changing his mind is simply out of the question since his base would go ballistic if that were to happen.

So Obama will muddle along, stalling for time, hoping he won't have to make the politically unpalatable choice of moving them to federal prisons here in the US. But unless he plans to simply unlock the doors and let them walk, eventually, that will be the only choice left to him.

Republicans should hold the Democrats' feet to the fire and demand that if Guantanamo is going to be closed, monies have to be appropriated. By putting the Democrats on record, it will rebound to the GOP's favor when terrorists start showing up on US soil.

Posted at 9:29 AM | Email | | | Share Share
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