The Senate voted 91-3 on the $607-billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which lays out broad defense policy requirements and restrictions.
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“Granite Staters who oppose bringing Guantanamo Bay terrorists into the country are breathing a sigh of relief that Governor Hassan isn’t in the Senate, given her support for President Obama’s unsafe plan to transfer detainees to the United States”, Chassé said in a release.
Over the past months, the Defense Department has studied sites in the U.S. states of SC, Colorado and Kansas to move the detainees.
As the end of Obama’s presidency is looming, the prospect of closing Guantanamo detention center, a campaign promise made by Obama in 2008, becomes dim. “It’s hypocrisy.” But it’s still possible the White House will make a unilateral move to transfer Guantanamo detainees stateside, relying on the fact that it will be hard for the next president – Democrat or Republican – to send prisoners back to Guantanamo Bay.
The letter’s author, Republican Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith, said transferring any Guantanamo detainees to Colorado would pose a risk to people in the state.
Although far from Aurora, the egregious embarrassment of Guantanamo Bay hit home in Colorado this week when Gardner stamped his feet in protest of the Pentagon considering moving a few of the prisoners to Cañon City.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the president plans to sign the bill when it returns to his desk because it contains a number of provisions “that are important to running and protecting the country”.
The legislation also includes a provision that prohibits detainees at Guantanamo Bay from being transferred to the U.S.
Obama vetoed the previous NDAA partly over a disagreement about almost $40 billion in extra war funding, but lawmakers agreed to a two-year budget deal in late October that increased defense and non-defense spending.
Former White House counsel Gregory Craig and Cliff Sloan, Obama’s special envoy for closing Guantanamo in 2013 and 2014, claim that law is unconstitutional. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) “So you know, what you can build, you can take apart too, it seems to me”.
“I think that’s likely from everything he’s said”, said Sen.
A plan detailing how to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center is expected this week from the Pentagon.
The United Nations and human rights organizations have repeatedly called on the Obama administration to close the detention facility at Guantánamo.
The bill authorizes more than 600 billion dollars in defense spending – but also includes five billion dollars in cuts. He later added that much in the overall bill is necessary to run and protect the United States, “and so that’s why I would expect that you would see the president sign the NDAA when it comes to his desk”. “Investigations have been conducted by USA authorities, however, our report highlights that this investigation into abuses at Guantanamo were not impartial and effective”, Lucile Sengler, OHDIR adviser on anti-terrorism issues, said at the press conference.
The Congressional ban was part of the Defense Appropriations Bill, and the president’s spokesman says while Obama doesn’t like the provision, he’ll sign the bill.
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Just three senators voted against the bill: Sens.
