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House Panel Votes to Block Obama Gitmo Plan


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Politico:


House panel votes to block Obama Gitmo plan

President Barack Obama’s hopes of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects is slipping further away. The defense authorization bill approved 59-0 by the House Armed Services Committee late Wednesday night contains language barring funding to build or convert any facility in the U.S. to accept former Guantanamo detainees.

Such a provision could scuttle Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo by purchasing a state prison in Thomson, Ill., to house some of those now at Gitmo. The administration had sought $350 million in Department of Defense funding for Guantanamo-related closure and transfer expenses and an additional $237 million in Department of Justice funding for the Thomson site, including paying the state for the jail.

“The committee firmly believes that the construction or modification of any facility in the U.S. to detain or imprison individuals currently being held at Guantanamo must be accompanied by a thorough and comprehensive plan that outlines the merits, costs and risks associated with utilizing such a facility. No such plan has been presented to date,” according to a summary released by the House Armed Services Committee.

The White House had no official comment on the committee’s action, but an official noted that the National Defense Authorization Act doesn’t entirely reject the idea of jailing Guantanamo prisoners in the U.S.

“The chairman’s mark also required a report, due by April 2011, from the [secretary of defense] on the merits, costs and risks of using any proposed facility in the U.S. or territories. So the issue will be revisited,” the official said.

However, if the White House accepts such a report as a prerequisite to closure, it will mean abandoning Obama’s prediction that the facility could close by the end of 2010. He had earlier vowed to close Gitmo in his first year in office but saw that prospect fall away because of bipartisan congressional resistance to bringing prisoners to U.S. soil.

Posted by Josh Gerstein 12:37 PM
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