Congress Moves to Block Guantanamo Closure

Congress is working right now to block transfers of Guantanamo detainees to the United States, for any reason—including trial. The House already voted on a provision that would obstruct efforts to bring to justice Guantanamo detainees suspected of crimes. Federal courts have convicted over 400 terrorists since 9/11. Military commissions have convicted 5. Congress is moving to rule out the surest way to get justice for 9/11. Human Rights First is urging its supporters to call or write their senators to oppose ANY provision that tries to block federal court trials for Guantanamo detainees. The House voted on this provision just last Wednesday. We joined a coalition of rights groups calling on Senators to oppose this provision, and mobilized our allies from the retired military to do the same. Congress needs also to know that their constituencies strongly oppose any attempt to obstruct trials of Guantanamo detainees slated for prosecution. Read more about how the this happened–and why it shouldn’t–in a recent post by HRF’s Daphne Eviatar: Pundits Punch and Congress Cows. It’s been two years since President Obama promised to close Guantanamo and we all hoped to put this mess behind us. We’ve encountered resistance, fearmongering, and other challenges—but this bill could actually prevent him from moving forward altogether. Let’s not let that happen.

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Published on December 14, 2010

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