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On Jan. 22 President Obama issued an executive order pledging to close the detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base within a year. With 262 days to go, the effort is running into some serious complications, National Journal reports:
House Appropriations Chairman David Obey dealt a blow to President Obama Monday by rejecting his request for funding in the FY09 supplemental spending bill to shut down the military's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center by early next year.
The White House requested $80 million in the FY09 war supplemental to begin moving 240 detainees out of Cuba, but Obey said Monday he stripped the funding from his bill because the administration has not presented a plan to close the facility.
"I personally favor what the administration's talking about doing, but so far as we can tell there is yet no concrete program for that," Obey said ahead of his panel's markup of the $94.2 billion supplemental Thursday. "And while I don't mind defending a concrete program, I'm not much interested in wasting my energy defending a theoretical program."
So, who has stepped up to the plate and has offered a place of residence for these detainees? Oh, yeah, that's right, no one. But wait, Obamasan can simply put a pen to a piece of paper and flatly state where to put 'em. Wonderful. Scary.
I'm just curious, on a side note, how much flack Mr. Obey gets for his name, and position? Obey. That's funny.
So, who has stepped up to the plate and has offered a place of residence for these detainees? Oh, yeah, that's right, no one. But wait, Obamasan can simply put a pen to a piece of paper and flatly state where to put 'em. Wonderful. Scary.
I'm just curious, on a side note, how much flack Mr. Obey gets for his name, and position? Obey. That's funny.
They can put them in Thompson, IL but that's being blocked by bi-partisan support and a lack of political will on what was apparantly just an empty campaign promise.
Didn't he promise to close Gitmo by the end of his first year in office? Or was that to halt the rise of the oceans and heal the sick? I keep forgetting.
Didn't he promise to close Gitmo by the end of his first year in office? Or was that to halt the rise of the oceans and heal the sick? I keep forgetting.
He has grown up a little since then and has realized that Gitmo actually has a legitimate purpose.
To his surprise it's turned out to be more than just a place where the Republicans torture innocent people.
He'll get it closed on time only if he does the right thing...turn loose any of those who haven't been convicted of anything.
Yeah, that might result in some really dangerous folks being let out (we can kill them later), but unless he does that, he's no better than George Bush when it comes to holding people without charge and forever. That's REALLY not a power we should want ANY President to have, even in a time of war.
However, I doubt he has the political guts to do it.
He'll get it closed on time only if he does the right thing...turn loose any of those who haven't been convicted of anything.
Yeah, that might result in some really dangerous folks being let out (we can kill them later), but unless he does that, he's no better than George Bush when it comes to holding people without charge and forever. That's REALLY not a power we should want ANY President to have, even in a time of war.
However, I doubt he has the political guts to do it.
Rumor has it that they have let some guys go....just to track them back and blow them up with their buddies.
I guess I always found Gitmo to just be a political construct. I mean, there we are in Afghanistan and Iraq actually BOMBING and killing thousands and thousands of guys and we are bent out of shape for holding a couple hundred captive.
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