16 October 2009

They Voted for You: Guantanamo Bay

U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-3rd, helped pass a plan that The Associated Press described as allowing suspected enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay to be shipped to U.S. soil, in cases in which they are to be prosecuted for their suspected crimes.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-2nd, voted to block the provision, as did all but one of the House GOP members present. They were rebuffed 193-224.

Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-1st, did not vote on that measure, or on passage of the underlying $42.8 billion Homeland Security appropriations legislation. Both Rahall and Capito voted for the bill in a 307-114 roll call.

"Permitting Guantanamo prisoners to be transferred to U.S. soil to stand trial had been a bipartisan compromise earlier," AP reports. "It mostly tracks current restrictions put in place in June and is similar to a version backed by Republicans earlier in the year."

But "without a plan from the administration for closing the facility," some GOP critics reverted to "calling the administration's plan misguided and potentially dangerous," the article also said.

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