Republicans who represent the region in Congress ripped President Barack Obama’s proposal to close the Guantanamo Bay prison where suspected terrorists are held. Devised by the Pentagon, the plan outlines how a shutdown might work – something that was requested by Congress. But it comes months after lawmakers from both parties approved legislation that prohibits the president from moving detainees onto USA soil.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Senate would hold hearings on Obama’s plan in the coming weeks.
Responding to Obama’s plan, the American Civil Liberties Union’s executive director, Anthony D. Romero, applauded the effort to close Guantanamo – but he added, “his decision to preserve the Bush-created military commissions is a mistake”.
Those detainees would be relocated to a USA facility. The Guantanamo prisoners were rounded up overseas when the United States became embroiled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on NY and Washington. “I stand with the President’s orders to shut down the Guantanamo facility, and I believe that our top priority should be concentrated on locking up detainees facing criminal charges, so they can be sentenced and tried justly”.
The senator advocates keeping the detention facility open, citing as a reason the 30 percent recidivism rate among released Guantanamo detainees, and because “there is no longer any complaint as to [their] treatment”.
Earnest said the White House is “not going to take any of the president’s options off the table”. He says he’ll fight to keep those prisoners out of the U.S. I’d say he needs to go back to the drawing board, but that would be working under the assumption that there is something viable in the proposal that can be improved on, which there is not. Transferring detainees to the United States – whether to Colorado or anywhere else – is still against the law, and still against the will of the American people. “Thirteen different possible sites”. Michael Bennet, the Democrat running for re-election this year.
Hatch said the plan would have unintended consequences.
The transfer and closure costs would be 263.59€ million to 431.74€ million, an administration official told reporters, while housing remaining detainees in the United States would be 59.08€ million to 77.26€ million less expensive than at the Cuba facility, meaning the transfer bill would be offset in 3 to 5 years.
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The White House is urging Congress to act before Obama leaves office.
