It’s always been a red herring whether or not we close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, where suspected Islamic terrorists are held. If you have a problem with holding people indefinitely without any judicial proceeding — as I do — then it really doesn’t matter where they’re being held.
But President Obama, in a bit of civil rights street theater, promised over and over again to close Guantanamo. Now his meaningless promise has apparently hit a bipartisan brick wall in Congress.
WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee has dealt a blow to President Obama’s hopes to shutter the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by unanimously approving legislation that would prohibit creating a detention center inside the United States.
The administration had asked Congress to approve about $350 million to buy and renovate a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Ill. The White House plan was to empty Guantánamo and transfer its detainees to Illinois — including 48 who would be held without trial as wartime prisoners.
The administration had asked Congress to approve about $350 million to buy and renovate a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Ill. The White House plan was to empty Guantánamo and transfer its detainees to Illinois — including 48 who would be held without trial as wartime prisoners.
Obama tried to put congressional Dems in an untenable political position, and they pushed back. It serves him right.
