AP Source: Democrats won't fund Guantanamo closing

[BR_Parkway]

Source: AP

President Barack Obama's allies in the Senate will not provide funds to close the Guantanamo Bay prison next January, a top Democratic official said Tuesday.

With debate looming on Obama's spending request to cover military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the official says Democrats will deny the Pentagon and Justice Department $80 million to relocate Guantanamo's 241 detainees.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposed changes to the bill were to be unveiled later.

The administration has yet to develop a plan for what to do with the detainees, and Obama's promise to close the facility is facing strong GOP opposition.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090519/ap_on_go_co/us_cong...

[derby378]

1. I feel a song coming on... (WARNING: Disturbing imagery)

http://www.dimmu-borgir.com/video/sorgens-kammer-del-II...

English translation (for those who don't speak Norwegian):

The echoes of silence sets the hour
Gagged in the chains of depression, I fall away
No more will I be bolted fast to the anchor of melancholy
But finally get my wish fulfilled - for leaving

Did I drink too much from the goblet of optimism?
Did I take the vanity of joy for granted?
For my battle against the pain of emptiness - this intoxication of the angst of death
Is all that remains - that is mine

In my loneliness I still know
That I have none to thank but myself
This is why I keep my calm
As the rope tightens around my neck

(Verse repeats)

Mute witnesses cannot give comfort
The common man in the assembly of the gravechoir
This land of perdition
I created with my own hands

This intense attraction to the portals of death
A wandering study of tearful black mass
Controlled since the dawning of time
But something I would never let go - was the sorrow

In my loneliness I still know
That I have none to thank but myself
This is why I keep my calm
As the rope tightens around my neck

[Demeter]

3. Ah, Yes, Those, Cheerful, Optimistic Norwegians!

Garrison Keillor teaches about them.

[derby378]

5. Poor Garrison...

He means well, but he opined we should drop the torture investigations. Nuh-uh. Ain't letting this one drop the same was Iran/Contra was dropped.

[Demeter]

6. Are You Sure He Wasn't Being Sarcastic?

Sometimes his subtle dry wit is too subtle.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. "This land of perdition I created with my own hands"

Sadly...truly.

[cali]

2. fuck. Obama needs to get a plan out there asap and he needs to

lean hard on the dem assholes blocking the funds.

[Demeter]

4. I Understand WHY The Democrats are Not Willing to Give Away the Store

They want to know what exactly they are buying BEFORE they fork over the money. Would to God they'd been equally skeptical during George III's reign.

[No Elephants]

7. Repub game plan: Make sure Obama's actions are not much different from Dummya's, to the

extent that they can interfere.

[OKNancy]

9. kick

[The Hope Mobile]

10. Democrats won't fund Guantanamo closing

Source: AP

*
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer – 43 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's allies in the Senate will not provide funds to close the Guantanamo Bay prison until the administration comes up with a satisfactory plan for transferring the detainees there, a top Democrat said Tuesday.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said Obama's plan to close Guantanamo is not dead — only that the funding will have to wait until the administration devises an acceptable plan to handle the closure and transfer the detainees. Obama has promised to close the military prison by January.

"The administration has not come up with a plan at this point," said Durbin, who is the whip, or No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. He added that Democrats are likely to address the issue on later legislation. "I think Guantanamo should be closed and we have to wait for the president's direction on what happens to the detainees."

With debate looming on Obama's spending request to cover military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, says Democrats will deny the Pentagon and Justice Department $80 million to relocate Guantanamo's 240 detainees.

The administration has yet to develop a plan for what to do with the detainees, and Obama's promise to close the facility is facing strong GOP opposition.

It appears to be a tactical retreat. Once the administration develops a plan to close the facility, congressional Democrats are likely to revisit the topic, provided they are satisfied there are adequate safeguards.

Explaining the reversal, Durbin said: "The feeling was at this point we were defending the unknown. We were being asked to defend a plan that hasn't been announced. And the administration said, 'Understood. Give us time to put together that plan and we'll come to you in the next appropriations bill.'"

The developments on Capitol Hill came as the Pentagon said it still expects the prison at Guantanamo Bay to be closed by January 2010 as Obama has ordered.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters on Tuesday that he sees nothing to indicate the January 2010 deadline will be delayed.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090519/ap_on_go_co/us_cong...

[nichomachus]

11. Obama should announce that Gitmo prisoners will be sent to

any state that has a senator who has been elected, but not seated.

We should have something good come out of this.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

12. Love it! nt.

[sharp_stick]

13. That's not bad

And they can house them in the State Capitol.

[The Hope Mobile]

14. Now you're talkin'!! nt

[dgibby]

16. Talk about thinking out of the box! Too funny!

[Tesha]

17. That's a *GREAT* idea!

We could cloak it under some rubrick that we're just choosing from among those states where the natural climatic conditions make escape "infeasible" nine months out of the year or so.

Tesha

[liberal N proud]

15. And my pet Republican just cornered me to tell me Obama gets

everything he wants.

[The Hope Mobile]

18. LOL!! The BFEE is STILL getting more than most Americans want

them to. Obama's not getting near enough to please the mainstream right now.

[judesedit]

19. Many people in this country are scary as hell and more dangerous

This country has born and incarcerated MANY mostly white male serial killers. This country has more prisons and prisoners than any other. Of course, some are in there because the corporations want cheap labor. Some are let out due to overcrowding. And by the way....your government is more dangerous than any body in Gitmo. Doesn't it strike you funny that whenever someone is supposed to testify against a government official or department, they suddenly commit suicide? Don't be so naive. Half of the prisoners being held in Gitmo, have not even been charged. Some have been children. Many are innocent. A lot of people in this country have such a thirst for gore and violence, and they think everyone thinks like them. Like Cheney. That's why he's so suspicious of everyone. He knows he lies and can't be trusted. It's as simple as that. And, as usual, our illustrious Congress tiptoes around any issue that takes balls to speak out about. They still haven't even told the truth about 9/11. They just keep using people from the Middle East as scapegoats. Sorry gang, but facts are facts.

[steven johnson]

20. All Politics are Local -- Not in My Back Yard

No one wants the Guantonimo detainees in their community.

[ohio2007]

21. but everybody wants them "set free" but on a side note

I wonder how they would make their stand in jail? would they find a gang that would accept them,listen to them preach their peaceful ways or, would they become bubba's 72 virgin biatches ?


what ?

Nobody wants to think "inside the box" ?

[AlphaCentauri]

22. Senate to block fund for Guantanamo closure

Source: AP

The Senate is poised to hand President Barack Obama a major setback by denying him money to shut down the Guantanamo prison and block the transfer of detainees to the United States.

Last month, Obama asked for $80 million for the Pentagon and the Justice Department to close the facility, which has 240 detainees, by next January. In the eyes of the world, the prison has come to exemplify harsh U.S. anti-terror tactics and detention without trial for almost all of its inmates, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan.

The vote promises to be a sweeping rebuke of the administration, which put its Democratic allies in a difficult spot by requesting the Guantanamo closure money before developing a plan for what to do with its detainees.

Obama is scheduled to give a major address Thursday outlining in more detail his plans for Guantanamo, but it's already clear that Congress has little appetite for bringing detainees to U.S. soil, even if the inmates would be held in maximum-security prisons.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gj2oO...

[ixion]

23. I'll tell you what:

I want EVERY SINGLE congress person who has supported torture and GITMO to face justice for their arrogance.

Continuing in the path of Bush will not work out well at all, IMO.

[florida08]

24. apparently

we are a one party system..lookout 2012

[ecstatic]

25. Where is the outrage? Barely a peep about this on DU! nt

[The Hope Mobile]

27. It was posted a few days ago. Also, they're apparently not saying that

they won't fund it at all just not until there's a plan and a place to put the Gitmo detainees.

[Grey]

26. Why would it cost $80 million?

Isn't there an empty, brand new prison in Montana ready and waiting? Fully staffed and all?
I thought I read that story here yesterday.

[Doctor_J]

28. Looks like they're going to "Clinton" Obama

In 1993 the Congress bitched and moaned before passing Bill Clinton's budget, which eventually rescued the country from the Reagan-Bush disaster. The current Dem Congress is going to similarly cripple Obama. If you want to complain about how not enough progressive legislation is happening, place the blame where it belongs, not on the President.

[LeftHander]

29. Put them in Bush library as a "Interactive Display" indefiniately

Vistors can order and watch waterboarding and "harsh treatment" while watching videos of the WTC towers collapsing.

[snooper2]

30. Guess no Senator has any balls...

All one Senator would have to do is say- We have a supermax facility that has never had an escape. We will take the prisoners because I know the people of the State of ( X ) are up to the task.


But no- no cajones in the bunch of them

[marshall]

31. Why not just open the gate and release them in Cuba?

Let them decide what to do with them.

[FriendlyReminder]

32. I'm pissed.

[chatnoir]

33. Beyond disgusting at this point

I'm getting so beyond sick of waking up to more of the same every day.

[Obamanaut]

34. I am puzzled as to why it costs $80 million to close the place and

move the residents therefrom.

A fortune was spent to build it. Another fortune was spent to build the facilities to allow several trials to proceed simultaneously. Now we need over 1/3 million dollars apiece to relocate those residents. A first class plane ticket for each one plus a couple of guards can't be that expensive.

What's up with that? I'm glad it is being blocked.