Representative John Murtha (D-PA) says he may try to include a requirement in the $100 billion war spending bill that would close the Guantanamo Bay facility, according to MSNBC. Murtha is the chairman of the military appropriations subcommittee in the House, and thus has a great deal of power. He says it will improve the international view of the United States if we closed the facility.
Many Democrats though say that they are opposed to the idea. While they want to close Guantanamo, they don’t want to have to vote for the spending bill to do it. And many on both sides say they oppose closing Guantanamo.
While I would support closing Guantanamo, the detainees wouldn’t necessarily be charged or released, they would probably just be moved. Closing the facility would accomplish little beyond shifting the focus to another facility. Also, attaching something else to military spending bills is exactly how REAL ID got passed, and it’s not how laws should be passed.
Technorati Tags: Politics, Current Events, Bush, Current Affairs, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Enemy Combatants, Executive Power, Human Rights, Guantanamo Bay, Enemy Combatants, War on Terror, Detainees, John Murtha
10 February 2007 at 6:20 pm
Gitmo can’t close itself. There has to be some vote to agree to stop spending unless they can close it without voting on it.
11 February 2007 at 9:12 am
I would assume Bush can close it without a vote of any kind, but of course there’s no way he would.