Senate Bars Guantanamo Detainees From America

Something the GOP and Senate Dems agree on: we need Guantanamo

The Senate passed a measure banning the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US for another year, despite a veto threat from the White House, the New York Daily News reports.

The measure, introduced as an amendment from Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), was attached to the annual defense authorization bill. The bill passed with bipartisan support, 54-41.

The White House Office of Management and Budget threatened that President Obama would veto any bill including language banning prisoners from transferred to the United States, according to US News & World Report. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) derided the bill as "veto bait."

But Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made a colorful remark in support of the amendment on the Senate floor, saying the American people don't want to close Guantanamo Bay's detention center to "bring these crazy bastards that want to kill us all to the United States."

He was countered, though by Senator Rand Paul, saying the "crazy bastards" should have a right to trial by jury.

Viat US News & World Report

Should Gitmo detainees be brought to the US?

[thejimbo]

https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.demandprogress.or...

[Freedom1]

Interesting, what the people of the US. R not aware of, is that MANY of these detainees r already being housed here on various military facilities. Just food for thought....don't ever believe the media.

[Jack-Black]

Barry said that he would close Guantanamo within his first term. LIE!

[jessejaymes]

Obama ordered Gitmo closed immediately after taking office and the GOP stopped him with filibusters. You don't have to like the man (and I really don't) but it would be mature to at least tell the truth when the GOP is responsible.

[Jack-Black]

@jessejaymes Not true. Barry had the senate and House during his first two years of rule. He could have closed it but he did not. He was too busy passing Porkulus packages ( to pay back his donors) and the unaffordable health care bill.

[Denizen_Kate]

@Jack-Black - Which part of "stopped him with filibusters" did you not understand? The way they have it set up, a congressional majority does not guarantee that you'll get anything done.

[Jack-Black]

@Denizen_Kate Dems held a fillabuster proof senate for 72 days. They lost it after Teddy went to that big scotch bottle in the sky. Try again.

[scotta]

@jessejaymes wrong. When the "Banner" came into office, the Democrats had a super majority in the senate. His majority did not want it to happen. So they did not need Republicans support to pass the bill. Sorry to pop your bubble. But the facts are the facts.

[MongoAPillager]

give them a jury trial at Guantanamo??but if found guilty or innocent give them top level access military jobs or set them up with free housing, food stamps,free medical,college etc.

[dances-weebles]

move them all to arizona. nobody much is using that for anything. sheriff joe can take care of them all and it'll give that fur balled governor something to think about, too.

[MongoAPillager]

@dances-weebles i was thinking more like Washington d.c.,you know,so they would feel more at home

[dances-weebles]

@MongoAPillager no... i think that governor jan would make them all feel welcome

[Thegrif]

Yeap sounds like a Obama plan

[Bobolinsky]

@dances-weebles-- AZ? No being used? I know you're living in Brazil but have you been out of the US since the 70's? AZ and the desert that extends to LA is overpopulated. It's being overused.

And I know that Liberals like you... yes you are a Lefty... like to think of any republican women as a traitor to their vagina. It would be nice if the Lefties out there... and yes you are a Liberal... would start to afford women and minorities who identify more with the principles associated with the republican party than the rationalizations of the democrat party but I'm not holding my breath.

[lawnmowrman]

Does anyone else think that she might have attached the amendment to get the President to veto it? What is her stance on the change in the indefinite detention provision in NDAA 2013? It does say that American citizens can be detained forever upon act of Congress.

[martydotcom]

$800k/per prisoner/yr. Shut the damn place down. We've held the blind sheik and other terrorists. This is just an example of congress pissing money away

[woodtick57]

Congress or the military? Who is holding them?

[martydotcom]

@woodtick.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/11/no-au...

[martydotcom]

@woodtick57 Congress has barred transferring any prisoner to US soil. military runs Gitmo

[woodtick57]

@martydotcom

So the military. thanx.

if they were held in the US, it would not be at the average cost. what is the cost of supermax solitary prisoners, whch these would be?

[martydotcom]

@woodtick57 Supermax = 62k per year, I know regular sec here in Fl ~20k privatized
vs $800k Gitmo

[DyingBreed]

Chance to sway me here. Pros and Cons of closing Guantanamo, please.

[woodtick57]

no reason to close it at all. stop using inneffective info gathering techniques there, yes. we have good, well proven techniques.

[woodtick57]

@woodtick57

Which we hhave done, vis-a vis te interroation techniques, yes?

[DARSB]

To start, terrorists (if that's what these guys are - and there are questions about that) are only dangerous in the wild. Once captured and imprisoned they are no more dangerous than, say, Charlie Manson. Sen Lindsey Graham's hand wringing aside, the detainees are not an existential threat.

Secondly, America is the world's top authority in prisons. We do more of it, per capita, than any other western nation. And we're good at it. John Gotti never escaped, the Blind Sheik had been in custody for decades, and the shoe bomber occupies a solitary cell in Super Max. Gitmo is not inherently more secure than stateside facilities, and the detainees there are just medium dangerous.

Thirdly, our reputation in the world is harmed by maintenance of a secret off shore prison. We claim an awful lot of moral high ground in this country with our "all created equal" mantra but that's incompatible with our treatment out these detainees. Add to that the painful legal contortions we've gone through to create military courts to try these men rather than using our perfectly good criminal Justice system. All any foreign critic of our country needs to support charges of American arrogance is Guantanimo.

[woodtick57]

@DARSB

Thhat''s no reason to close the base. just stop using it to detain prisoners.(or is that what you mean?)

[DARSB]

@woodtick57 Oh, yeah, I mean the prison. The Navy Base is actually pretty nice with an excellent E club.

[CanisCanemEdit]

Carol Rosenberg, correspondent at the Miami Herald, has been at the forefront of all the news from Guantanamo Bay.

"There's 168 men down there," she says. "Only four (4) of them have been convicted."
.
.
"I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm gonna make sure that we don't torture." - Barack Obama
.
.
Guantanamo Commander Defends $744,000 Soccer Field

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/01/usa...

At least the 168 detainees get to play on a $3/4 Million Dollar soccer field.

I guess that's about the same as closing GITMO......?

[Zazziness]

I'm glad that Rand, at least, understands that the rule of law doesn't just apply when you feel like it.

[Denizen_Kate]

What bothers me the most about this is that it was "attached to the annual defense authorization bill." Meaning that those who vote against this bill in its entirety will be accused of not supporting our troops. Gitmo is an important enough issue to warrant its own legislation. I'm sick and tired of amending otherwise good legislation with bad, just in order to get some special interest measure passed.

[artjeb]

Close GITMO & put the detained ppl on a ship to send them back home.
Half way across the pond pull the plugs. GLUB GLUB

[CommonSense]

The place isn't the problem. The procedure is the problem.
Give them trial by jury but until they are due in court keep them in Guantanamo and once convicted send them back to Guantanamo.

[Runner1]

Kill the "crazy bastards" and stop wasting money on these scum. They are guilty.

[seedtick]

The whole idea of bring these pig turds to America is stupid. Keep them at Gitmo. And, while we are on the subject, do away with the country club atmosphere Barack Husssein Obama has put into play there. We should also try them as fast as we can and do it with military tribunals and the death penalty in play...using veterans from Iraq and Afganistan. Allow the families of our military personnel who died in Iraq and Afganistan to sit in the courtroom as they are tried.

[1adam2]

as much as i wished, there was no need for guantnamo. i must be realistic, that i certainly do not want them here in the united states. it is the terrorists, that make the need for guantanamo necessary. they are violent illegal aliens, let them stay that way.

[MikeC]

I am not crazy about having them here but they are our prisoners. Besides, there is not a chance in hell they could ever escape from a federal, maximum security prison. Turn things around, we would not want or allow prisoners of war from another country stay here. We need out of Guantamo and a lot of other places around the world.

[sylehrman]

More than likely those who have survived the last twelve years of cruelty after having done little or nothing to deserve it they will all be mad and should be brought here to be treated for whatever form of stress disorder they have now. For the money it would be cheaper to send them all to Harvard and give them a chance to learn something.

[MarkJM]

Not only No but Hell No. And good job U.S. Senate for making sure of it too.