Amnesty International and MSNBC both announced today that we may be close to the end of ?a long dark day in American history, the closing of the concentration camp known as Gitmo.
From MSNBC:
Tuesday evening, the Senate defeated an attempt by Republican New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte to add an amendment to the? 2014 National Defense Authorization Act that would have barred transfers of Gitmo detainees to U.S. soil for detention, trial or medical treatment. Transfers from Gitmo have been severely restricted since the 2010 lame-duck session of Congress shortly after Republicans took back the House. The current version of the Senate?defense bill lifts many of those restrictions, although the House version retains them. The bill will now go to conference, where both houses will have to hash out a compromise.
From Amnesty International:
Finally, the Senate did the right thing on Guantanamo. The new detainee transfer provisions will help ensure that each detainee is either given a safe and fair trial in US federal court or is transferred to another country, if cleared to leave.?-Zeke Johnson, Director of Amnesty International USA’s Security & Human Rights Program
The closing of Guantanamo Bay would be a significant accomplishment for President Obama as it would fulfill his 2008 promise to close the prison.
Edited by SS
