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WORLD> America
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Senate OKs move of Gitmo prisoners to US for trial
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-21 10:49
Separately, a group of retired generals and war veterans launched a national campaign Tuesday to rally support for closing the prison and transferring its inmates. The campaign, "CLOSE GITMO NOW," begins Tuesday with a relatively modest $100,000 ad buy on cable television channels across the country, exhorting Congress to reject the "failed Bush-Cheney policies."
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit to obtain unreleased photos of detainee abuse under the federal Freedom of Information Act and won two rounds in federal court. The bill essentially would overcome the ACLU's case. The administration has appealed to the US Supreme Court, and Obama has said he would use every available means to block release of additional detainee abuse photos, because they could whip up anti-American sentiment overseas and endanger US troops. His powers include issuing an order to classify the photos, thus blocking their release. On another matter, Republican Sen. Jim DeMint complained that negotiators dropped a plan to require double-layer fences along 700 miles of the border with Mexico rather than vehicle barriers and high-tech equipment. The agreed bill also would overturn a decades-old provision of US law that made a foreigner whose US citizen spouse died within two years of their marriage eligible for expulsion from the country, said Michael Mershon, spokesman for a sponsor of the legislation, Democratic Rep. James McGovern. Opponents called the rule the "Widows Penalty."
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