WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama won a modest victory Tuesday in his continuing effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, allowing the government to continue to transfer detainees at the facility to the U.S. to be prosecuted.
Separately, the Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether Guantanamo detainees who are considered no threat can be ordered released in the United States — over the objections of the Obama administration and Congress — if the prisoners have nowhere else to go.
The plan to permit terrorist suspects held at the facility to be shipped to U.S. soil to face trial was part of a larger $44.1 billion budget bill for the Homeland Security Department that passed the Senate by a 79-19 vote.
The measure already passed by the House now goes to Obama for his signature. The Guantanamo provision generally tracks restrictions already in place that block release of detainees in the U.S., but permits them to be tried here.
Obama in January ordered the facility closed in a year. About 220 men are being held at Guantanamo.
The plan adopted Tuesday requires the administration to develop a plan before any further transfers. It also requires 15 days’ notice before a transfer can occur and a certification that the prisoner does not represent a security risk.
The Senate debate over Guantanamo prisoners was relatively sedate. Last week, House Democratic leaders had to press to defeat a GOP effort to block transfer of any of the Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S., even to face trial.
“Prosecuting these individuals in our U.S. courts simply will not work and there is too much at stake to grant the unprecedented benefit of our legal system’s complex procedural safeguards to foreign nationals who were captured outside the United States during a time of war,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
“Guantanamo must be closed because it’s become a recruiting tool for al-Qaida and other terrorists,” countered Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
The homeland security measure is one of several bills addressing the Guantanamo issue. A Senate-passed defense spending measure would block all transfers while a separate defense policy measure would also permit transfers for trial.
The underlying spending bill also backs the Obama administration’s refusal to release new photos showing U.S. personnel abusing detainees held overseas. The measure supports Obama’s decision to allow the defense secretary to bar the release of detainee photos for three years.
Supreme Court case
The Supreme Court case could further complicate the Obama administration’s plan to close the prison.
The court’s fourth look at the terror-suspects detention system, created by the Bush administration following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, will focus on 13 Chinese Muslims, most of whom were cleared by the Pentagon for release in 2003.
Six years later — and eight years after their capture in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001 — they remain in custody at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
The first three high-court decisions were rebukes to the government for denying detainees their day in court.
The justices said they will hear a challenge from the Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs (WEE’-gurs), who are asking the court to put some teeth into its June 2008 ruling that said federal judges could ultimately order some detainees to be released, depending on security concerns and other circumstances.
A federal appeals court said the federal judge who ordered the Uighurs’ release, after the 2008 high court decision, lacked the authority to order detainees released into the United States, setting up the new Supreme Court challenge.
The justices will hear the argument early in 2010, although it is possible that if the administration succeeds in relocating the Uighurs by then, the case could be dismissed.
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