Sounds hinky as well as a strategy to provide political cover to Barack Obama with the far left base.
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 240 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.
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.
White House officials still claim the 2010 deadline to close Gitmo is in place, but no comprehensive plan is in place and no one seems to know where those 240 detainees would be brought.
Republicans have amendment after amendment prepared to try to prevent Obama from bringing those suspected terrorists onto U.S. soil and while I continue to hear arguments from the left about having them brought here and tried here, I notice none of them want them brought to their home town!
Closing Gotmo may be a political winner for Democrats with their far far left base in theory, but the reality of bringing terrorists into the U.S., deliberately, would be political suicide with moderate, independent and Republican voters.
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