al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Congress, detainees, Gitmo, Guantanamo, jihad, Supermax

Senate Dems block vote, avoid talking ‘about Obama’s Gitmo jihadi dump’

by  • 

Senate Democrats took the coward’s way out last night; they blocked a vote that would have prevented the transfer of Guantanamo detainees into America’s prisons. Michelle Malkin has them pegged, “Bok, bok, bok. Another chicken run from Democrats who desperately do not want to talk about Obama’s Gitmo jihadi dump.”

Sen. Jim Inhofe’s office responded to our inquiry by email after the vote:

Senate Democrats today blocked the effort of U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) to consider his amendment that would permanently keep the military-run detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GITMO) open while preventing terrorist detainees from being transferred to the United States.

“President Obama and the Democrats’ obsession with closing GITMO is confounding,” Inhofe said. “I attempted to get the Senate to consider my very clear and straightforward amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would have ensured that GITMO remained open and denied the transfer of terrorist detainees to the United States. Polls have shown that most Americans do not want to close GITMO, and certainly do not want these terrorist detainees to be transferred to the United States. A few days ago, my office announced a petition drive to get Oklahomans and Americans to support my effort to keep GITMO open. In that short amount of time, my office was inundated with tens of thousands of signatures to the petition. The fact that the Democrats have blocked my amendment defies the outspoken desire of these Americans.”

Inhofe continued, “The amendment I tried to offer is very similar to S.370, a stand-alone bill I offered to keep GITMO open. I will continue to pursue every available opportunity to achieve legislation that permanently keeps the facility open and closes the door to terrorist transfers.”

To learn more about the Inhofe petition to keep GITMO open, visit here.

As 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America reported yesterday, since June 30, President Barack Obama has cleared two dozen beds at Supermax for Gitmo detainees.

al Qaeda, Barack Obama, detainees, Gitmo, Guantanamo, indefinite detention, Supermax

Supermax beds being cleared for Gitmo detainees; Sen. Inhofe asks ‘what kind of threat does this present to the American population?’

by  • 

Since June 30, President Barack Obama has cleared two dozen beds at Supermax for Gitmo detainees and today Senate Democrats will attempt to block a vote on Senator Jim Inhofe’s amendment [S.Amdt.1559] to the Defense Authorization bill (S.1390) for FY 2010. The amendment would prohibit the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo to any facility in the United States. (A final vote on the Defense authorization may come as early as this evening.) In addition, Senator Inhofe is also sponsoring the ‘Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility Safe Closure Act of 2009’ (S.370). We join Sen. Inhofe in asking you to call your Senators [(202) 224-3121] today and demand that they go on record, to vote ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ to keep terrorists out of America.

Previously, there was always a long waiting list to move infamous criminals, prisoners who had repeatedly assaulted guards or fellow prisoners, and high-security prisoners in grave danger in general population into Supermax. When President Obama took office there was one free bed. On June 30, 2009, Supermax inmate Eric Rudolph wrote Fox News saying it is already at capacity, “So even if they decide to move the detainees here I do not know where they would put them.”

Click on image to view the Bureau of Prison’s inmate population page

9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America asked Senator Inhofe for his reaction to the suddenly available space at Supermax: