Congress OKs bill banning Gitmo detainees from US

By the Miami Herald’s count, there are 27 of these “forever prisoners”.

“The only argument we’ve heard from them is that they don’t want to face their constituents and they don’t want to be on the receiving end of a disingenuous, politically motivated attack ad”, said Earnest.

The Pentagon is expected to release a report later this week about whether the detainees would go if the prison at Guantanamo Bay is closed.

Another veto could have proved embarrassing to Obama because both chambers of the Republican-controlled Congress had mustered the necessary two-thirds majority that would override it.

“I expect he will not have a specific plan and it won’t be satisfactory”, The Wall Street Journal quoted McCain as saying.

Rising rapidly to the top of America’s most shameful moments is this week’s congressional sanction of the unconstitutional, unethical, immoral and repugnant treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and Colorado Sen. “The president will do what he has to do”, he told reporters. “The answer is an emphatic no”. Given that the courts have blocked his executive order blocking the deportation of a few 5 million undocumented immigrants, Obama is probably gun shy.

“I’m not aware of any ongoing effort to devise a strategy using only the president’s executive authority to accomplish this goal”, Earnest said. I’d bet on the autopen approach, perhaps sometime late in the evening. Jen Bendery contributed reporting.

Although Obama clearly does not agree with the provisions related to Guantanamo, as of this report, he has not threatened to veto the bill.

Republican lawmakers have also spoken out against the president’s plan for Guantanamo detainees. “The president, in his capacity as commander in chief, has the exclusive authority to make tactical military decisions”.

Earnest said that the president will sign the bill based on the “practical reality of what the votes look like”.

The Senate’s 91-3 vote Tuesday gave the bill final approval.

Josh Earnst added, it doesn’t change the president’s intentions to close the prison.

“We didn’t really get a detailed explanation as to the reasons that was not possible”. “If he moves forward with this, it would be blatantly unconstitutional, flouting laws passed by Congress”. Particularly when it comes to an issue like closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. “The president feels strongly about that”.

The bill does, however, contain the Guantanamo language Obama said he objected to when he vetoed the last bill.

A letter to the White House that protested the possibility of moving foreign terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba was signed by 41 of the state’s 64 sheriffs and released on Tuesday.

Obama could force the matter through executive action, but federal law prevents the transfer of prisoners to the United States.

The Congressional ban was part of the Defense Appropriations Bill, and the president’s spokesman says while Obama doesn’t like the provision, he’ll sign the bill. Even lawmakers who have advocated the need to close Guantanamo – like Reps. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., were the only Senators to vote against the bill. Mike Pompeo and Lynn Jenkins asked that a delegation of federal, state and local officials from the Leavenworth area visit Guantanamo to learn how to handle the detainees.