Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Several of President Barack Obama’s leading GOP critics on Wednesday seized on reports that Pentagon officials believe replacing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with one in the United States could cost more than half a billion dollars.
The emerging price tag could complicate Obama’s ever-difficult task of shuttering the prison, known as Gitmo, before he leaves office — one of the first goals he set upon his inauguration in 2009, but one that Congress has repeatedly thwarted.
The Obama administration needs to go “back to the drawing board” as it plans a way to close Gitmo, Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters Wednesday.
“I still believe — and I know this is very unpopular with some of my conservative colleagues — that Guantanamo is a symbol to many in the Arab world of Abu Ghraib, of torture, of waterboarding,” said McCain. “I would like to see the place closed,” he said, but added, “There has to be a viable alternative.”
As McCain noted, he is unusual as a Republican who wants to close Gitmo. And he said the half-billion-dollar price sounded unnecessarily high.
By contrast, many of his GOP colleagues are content to leave Gitmo open, and they welcome the huge cost projection as another obstacle in Congress to closing the prison.
Gitmo Closure Cost Emerges as Sticking Point
Shut it down and stop screwing around.
The emerging price tag could complicate Obama’s ever-difficult task of shuttering the prison, known as Gitmo, before he leaves office — one of the first goals he set upon his inauguration in 2009, but one that Congress has repeatedly thwarted.
The Obama administration needs to go “back to the drawing board” as it plans a way to close Gitmo, Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters Wednesday.
“I still believe — and I know this is very unpopular with some of my conservative colleagues — that Guantanamo is a symbol to many in the Arab world of Abu Ghraib, of torture, of waterboarding,” said McCain. “I would like to see the place closed,” he said, but added, “There has to be a viable alternative.”
As McCain noted, he is unusual as a Republican who wants to close Gitmo. And he said the half-billion-dollar price sounded unnecessarily high.
By contrast, many of his GOP colleagues are content to leave Gitmo open, and they welcome the huge cost projection as another obstacle in Congress to closing the prison.
Gitmo Closure Cost Emerges as Sticking Point
Shut it down and stop screwing around.
