If the administration had been as interested in passing the budget as
they were in that boondoggle of an HCR bill, this would be over and
maybe then the admin would have closed Gitmo or not - probably not.
Love the way he evades the issue of the KSM trial location as well.
Are there any adults in charge?
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Thursday, April 15, 2010
Holder blames Gitmo lag on Congress
Says it hasn't OK'd new facility
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By Stephen Dinan <http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/stephen-dinan/>
President Obama has faced criticism for failing to close the prison at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said
Wednesday the delay has been caused by Congress, which has not yet
approved a new facility to hold suspected terrorist detainees.
Mr. Holder said a government review team has identified 48 detainees who
will need to be held indefinitely, in addition to those whom the
government wants to put on trial in regular courts or military
commissions. He said the administration needs Congress to pass funding
to acquire a prison in Illinois before the detainees can be moved from
Guantanamo Bay.
"We have to have an option, and that will require congressional support
for the funding request we have made," Mr. Holder said.
Testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Holder also said no
final decision has been made on where to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the
suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Holder initially
announced that the trial would be held in New York City, but after
taking bipartisan heat from New York lawmakers, the White House changed
course and said the decision would be reviewed in light of national
security concerns.
"New York is not off the table as a place where he might be tried, but
we have to take into consideration the concerns that have been raised by
local officials," Mr. Holder said.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the committee
and a former U.S. attorney, said he was worried Mr. Holder's decision on
where to hold the trial was being overturned by political types in the
administration.
"It makes me a bit uneasy, having served in the department, to have
politicians discussing where the cases ought to be tried," Mr. Sessions
said. "That's normally the Department of Justice professional prosecutors."
However, Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican, said President Obama
should do just the opposite and take Mr. Holder out of the
decision-making altogether.
"The president should not let Attorney General Holder use his left-wing
ideology to steamroll him and cause potential damage to millions of New
Yorkers," Mr. King said.
On Guantanamo Bay, the administration has come under fire from the
political left for failing to meet the president's vow to close the
prison within a year of taking office.
Last year, the administration proposed buying the Thomson Correctional
Center in Illinois and using that to house detainees who will go to
trial and also detainees who cannot be released because they are deemed
too dangerous but for whom prosecution isn't an option because the
admissible evidence against them is too slim to make a case.
Mr. Obama included money to acquire the Illinois prison in the fiscal
2011 budget he sent to Congress in February, and Mr. Holder said they
are waiting on that approval before closing Guantanamo Bay.
Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil
Liberties Union's Washington office, said the administration deserves
credit for trying to clear many detainees for release or transfer but it
has boxed itself in on the 48 detainees to be held indefinitely.
Those detainees have to be held according to international law, which
says they have to be segregated and cannot be held in a punitive manner
because they are not being charged with crimes. That rules out existing
prison facilities, which are punitive.
The Illinois prison, though, could be designed to hold them in one
building while holding detainees destined for trial or serving jail
sentences in another, punitive setting.
However, Mr. Anders said if the government would concede there is no
need for indefinite detention, the administration could find places to
house the other detainees facing criminal proceedings.
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