All that was tied into a massive spend bill funding Democrat priorities. Republicans had pushed to cut spending to 2008 levels — before the stimulus package or the Wall Street bailouts — which they said would have reduced expenditures by $100 billion. Why didn't Obama close Gitmo when he had the chance in 2009? Do Republicans have mind control over his actions?
A defense authorization bill passed by the House and Senate included the language on the offshore prison, which President
Barack Obama tried unsuccessfully to close in his first year in office.
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Guantanamo Bay Getty Images
The measure for fiscal year 2011 blocks the Department of Defense from using any money to move Guantanamo prisoners to the U.S. for any reason. It also says the Pentagon can't spend money on any U.S. facility aimed at housing detainees moved from Guantanamo, in a slap at the administration's study of building such a facility in Illinois.
The Guantanamo ban was originally included in a broad appropriations bill earlier this month in the House, which died for unrelated reasons. At the time, Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter to congressional leaders calling the ban "an extreme and risky encroachment on the authority of the executive branch to determine when and where to prosecute terrorist suspects."
Republicans and some Democrats say the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which the government has spent millions of dollars upgrading, is the most secure place to keep terror suspects.
By banning transfers to the U.S., Congress is blocking trials of detainees in U.S. civilian courts. Proponents of the ban say military tribunals, not civilian courts, are the proper forum for bringing to justice suspects accused of trying to attack the U.S.
Those contentions grew stronger last month when a New York federal jury acquitted a former Guantanamo detainee of all but one count in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. The defendant, Ahmed Ghailani, still faces 20 years to life in prison.
Eric Holder
Mr. Obama originally pledged to close the prison by January 2010. That goal has foundered amid congressional opposition, and some 174 detainees remain at Guantanamo.
At a news conference Wednesday, the president expressed renewed desire to close Guantanamo, saying it has "become a symbol" and a recruiting tool for "al Qaeda and jihadists." "That's what closing Guantanamo is about," he said, adding: "I think we can do just as good of a job housing [detainees] somewhere else."
Mr. Obama didn't discuss specifics or mention Congress's ban on transfers. He said that regardless of Guantanamo's fate, his administration is developing a legal framework for holding terrorism suspects indefinitely.
The administration is looking at ways "to make sure these folks have the opportunity to challenge their detention—but at the same time, making sure that we are not simply releasing folks who could do us grievous harm," Mr. Obama said.
The controversy over Guantanamo heated up in November 2009 after Mr. Holder announced plans to transfer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to New York City for civilian trial.
New Yorkers protested the plan, and the president pulled the matter from Mr. Holder's hands. Administration officials say the idea of a civilian trial for the Sept. 11 plotters is dead, but the president has yet to announce his decision.
The measure passed Wednesday also includes language discouraging the Obama administration from transferring Guantanamo detainees to third countries if those countries have previously taken detainees and failed to prevent them from returning to terrorist activities.
A recent report to Congress from the nation's intelligence agencies said that of 598 detainees released from the prison since 2002, 150, or 25%, are confirmed or believed to have rejoined terrorist groups. Five of the 69 prisoners, about 7%, released by the Obama administration returned to terrorism or are suspected of doing so, the report said.
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