Bill Could Block Gitmo Closure

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/09/17-0


Published on Thursday, September 17, 2009 by Politico.com

Bill Could Block Gitmo Closure
by Josh Gerstein

A bill that could go to the Senate floor as early as next week would make it impossible for President Barack Obama to move any Guantanamo prisoners to the U.S. for any reason, effectively blocking his plan to close the facility by January.

The bar on all such transfers was written into the Senate version of the Defense appropriations bill passed by the Appropriations Committee last week and is stricter than current law, which allows prisoners to be brought to the United States for trial as long as Congress is notified 45 days in advance of any potential risks.

The language, proposed by Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), underscores the impatience many senators from both parties feel over the White House's failure to settle on a site or a legal framework to detain prisoners who would have to leave Guantanamo in order to meet Obama's January deadline.

The Senate panel also omitted any money to close Guanatanamo or build a new facility.

"We have not provided funding for the closure of Guantanamo, because the administration has yet to produce a credible plan," Inouye said.

"The Obama administration can't close Guantanamo without bringing some detainees to the United States, and Congress's actions show that the political price of doing so will be high," said Columbia Law professor Matthew Waxman, who worked on detainee issues at the Defense and State Departments under the Bush Administration. "Meanwhile, in emphatically barring transfers to the U.S., Congress undermines the administration's efforts to get other countries to take them."

..more..

This country becomes less the home of the brave and more the home of the timid!!

Maybe Inouye felt like as a group of islands Hawaii was a likely choice for Gitmo 2.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003121058&referrer=js


Levin Is Open to ‘Guantánamo North’ in Michigan
By Josh Rogin, CQ Staff

Most lawmakers view the prospect of moving prisoners from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to their districts as a negative proposition. But at least one Democratic senator is open to the idea as a potential economic boost to his struggling state.

Carl Levin , chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said that construction and staffing at a new maximum-security prison in Michigan could help his cash-starved state.


“If the governor and the local officials are open to it, that’s something that should be considered,” said Levin, making the point that each state should make its own determination.

Former Michigan Gov. John Engler, a Republican, suggested this month that creating a “Guantánamo North” in the Upper Peninsula could net the state upward of $1 billion per year, according to reports.

Other Senate Democrats have backed away from their initial openness to bringing some Guantánamo prisoners to U.S. soil, and Senate leaders agreed to drop funding that President Obama requested to close the prison from the fiscal 2009 supplemental appropriations bill (S 1054).

But many still argue that holding alleged terrorists in U.S. prisons is not a security problem.
..more..

:hi:

What is everyone so afraid of?

What are YOU afraid of, hmmm? :silly:

the max facility is already there.

moved to YOUR hometown? :hi:

Nobody would notice any difference.
I am not a victim to irrational fear.

"I am not a victim to irrational fear."

Apparently, you're a person who solicits opinions then derides them with otherwise contentless namecalling. :shrug:

I consider the fear to be irrational, and don't believe there is any evidence to prove otherwise.

I didn't know I was "namecalling".

"I didn't know I was 'namecalling'."

Blithely dismissing disagreement as "irrational fear" with no supporting argument whatever isn't reasoned discussion. Moreover, there are 50 states and a handful of territories. There is no reason in the world that Michigan should be the only one considered.

other than stating Michigan doesn't need anymore "trash" dumped on it?



I don't care if it's in Michigan, I lived in Michigan for years and love the place.
I simply mentioned it because I had read there was interest expressed.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Why this mania for placing Gitmo in Michigan? :hi:

BTW: alerted for the use of a racial epithet! :hi: :hi:

...perhaps the better question isn't "Where to put them?" but rather:

"Why do we continue to hold them?"

http://www.northernexpress.com/editorial/region.asp?id=4036


<snip>

JOBS AT STAKE

The Saginaw media reports that area residents are generally supportive of moving the Gitmo prisoners to Standish, a town of 1,500, where 340 jobs are at stake. A one-industry ‘prison town,’ Standish is located about 150 miles southeast of Traverse City in Arenac County, where unemployment is currently at 17.3 percent. Water and sewer fees from the prison account for 25 percent of the town’s municipal budget.

Standish Max is one of three prisons and five correctional camps that have been targeted for closure in Michigan this year due to budget cuts. The prison got a ‘stay of execution’ last month when Michigan State officials made a pitch to turn it into a medium-security prison to house up to 1,100 prisoners from California.

Michigan’s Corrections Department notes that the Level 5 maximum security prison is designed for the most dangerous, violent criminals, with one cell per inmate. Standish Max is surrounded by 16-foot-high double chain link fences topped with razor wire and monitored by electronic detection systems. Five gun towers overlook the prison’s interior and a patrol vehicle with armed guards constantly patrols the perimeter.

<snip>

So the basic dynamics of democracy suggest that their wishes won't be determinate.

:mad: