Dems Screw Their Own Man

[Aaron]

AOL News

WASHINGTON (May 20) - In a major rebuke to President Barack Obama, the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to block the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States and denied the administration the millions it sought to close the prison.

The 90-6 Senate vote - paired with similar House action last week - was a clear sign to Obama that he faces a tough fight getting the Democratic-controlled Congress to agree with his plans to shut down the detention center and move the 240 detainees.

The vote came as FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress that bringing Guantanamo detainees to the United States could pose a number of risks, even if they were kept in maximum-security prisons. Mueller's testimony to a House panel put him at odds with the president and undercut the administration's arguments for shuttering the facility.

"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."

Last month, Obama asked for $80 million for the Pentagon and the Justice Department to close the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by January. In the eyes of the world, the prison has come to exemplify harsh U.S. anti-terror tactics and detention without trial for almost all of its inmates, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan.

The administration put its Democratic allies in a difficult spot by requesting the Guantanamo closure money before developing a plan for what to do with its detainees.

Obama is scheduled to give a major address Thursday outlining in more detail his plans for Guantanamo, but it's already clear that many in Congress have little appetite for bringing detainees to U.S. soil, even if the inmates would be held in maximum-security prisons.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs indicated Wednesday that Obama's plan is still evolving.

"The president hasn't decided where some of the detainees will be transferred. Those are decisions that the task forces are working on and that the president will lay out and discuss tomorrow," Gibbs told reporters.

In recent weeks, Republicans have called for keeping Guantanamo open, saying abuses at the facility are a thing of the past and describing it as a state-of-the-art prison that's nicer than some U.S. prisons. And they warn that terrorists who can't be convicted might be set free in the United States.

"The American people don't want these men walking the streets of America's neighborhoods," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday. "The American people don't want these detainees held at a military base or federal prison in their backyard, either."

In another development Wednesday, a federal judge said the United States can continue to hold some prisoners at Guantanamo indefinitely without any charges.

Obama's new Pentagon policy chief, Michele Flournoy, said it's unrealistic to think that no detainees will come to the United States, and that the government can't ask allies to take detainees while refusing to take on the same burden.

"When we are asking allies to do their fair share in dealing with this challenge we need to do our fair share," Flournoy told reporters.


Obama ally Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., pointed out that not a single prisoner has ever escaped from a federal "supermax" prison and that 347 convicted terrorists are already being held in U.S. prisons.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, among the few Republicans joining former GOP presidential nominee John McCain of Arizona in calling for Guantanamo to be closed, scoffed at the idea that the government can't find a way to hold Guantanamo prisoners in the United States. Graham noted that 400,000 German and Japanese prisoners were held during World War II.

"The idea that we cannot find a place to securely house 250-plus detainees within the United States is not rational. We have done this before," Graham said. "But it is my belief that you need a plan before you close Gitmo."

While allies such as Durbin have cast the development as a delay of only a few months, other Democrats have made it plain they don't want any of Guantanamo's detainees sent to the United States to stand trial or serve prison sentences.

Despite the setback, some Democrats said Obama should not be underestimated.

"The president's very capable of putting together a plan that I think will win the approval of a majority of members of Congress," said moderate Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson. "I can't imagine that he won't."

That's right guys, you control Congress and no one has ever escaped a super-max prison but...well "their brown and in your town!" That seems to be the gist of the argument, it's not like there aren't already terrorists incarcerated in America.

Way to go flatnuts, you just shot down a great chance to restore a little of your nations prestige and confirm the rule of law.

[Mikey]

Sure - why go for logic and reason when fear and mob mentality can do?

[Lazar]

REID: I'm saying that the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, do not want terrorists to be released in the United States. That's very clear.

QUESTION: No one's talking about releasing them. We're talking about putting them in prison somewhere in the United States.

REID: Can't put them in prison unless you release them.

QUESTION: Sir, are you going to clarify that a little bit?

REID: I can't make it any more clear than the statement I have given to you. We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States.

I'm a self identified Democrat, and good God, I can't stand Harry Reid. He's as cowardly and unprincipled a politician as you can get.

[stitch626]

What!!!
This is why I stay out of politics... not a complete brain out of em.

[Foxfyre]

You don't have to release them to try them and imprisson them good god have they all (except those few that stood apart) lost what little grey matter they had?

[Sionnach Glic]

Great. So along with having to deal with the Republicans blocking his every move, he also has to put up with his own party being complete morons.
This is why I hate US politics.

[Tyyr]

Wow, did not see that one coming.

Even I want to see Gitmo shut down. It was billed as a temporary holding center to begin with but then it became a bald faced attempt to skirt the law. Shutting it down would have been the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is make terrorist into a martyr. The best thing you can do is treat them like a common criminal. Put them on trial between the child molesters and the grand theft auto guys. Treat them like the scum they are and take the wind out of their sails. Don't let them see you legitimizing them as a threat or enemy combatants. Treat them like common criminals.

[Sionnach Glic]

Indeed. Just put them on trial. If they're guilty, do whatever the law says you can to them. If they're innocent, let them go and for fuck's sake give them a pile of money to apologise for wasting several years of their lives.

[Mikey]

I read an interesting piece in Newsweek a few weeks back theorizing that the best way to make GITMO useful would be to open the Cuban border; turn it into a controlled outlet for American imports. It was a well-written and convincing piece; a K-Mart or something would clean up down there, and the locals would have access to a quantity and quality of goods that they've never seen, at prices far less than what the Cuban government charges.