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President Obama on Wednesday signed a $607 billion annual defense policy bill, even though it includes language that hampers the closure of the Guantanamo Bay military prison. As a presidential candidate Obama pledged to close the controversial detention facility, but has been thwarted repeatedly by Congress, which opposes transferring detainees to the mainland United States. In a rare move, the president issued a signed statement blasting provisions in the bill intended to block the president from moving Guantanamo Bay prisoners to facilities within the U.S. "I am, however, deeply disappointed that the Congress has again failed to take productive action...

House Republicans who have served in the military are urging the Joint Chiefs of Staff to seek legal guidance before following any orders from the President Obama to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States In letter Monday, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan) and 15 of his veteran colleagues, told the Joint Chiefs to seek appropriate legal advice, prior to executing any order from the president. "It is of great concern to us that President Obama may be considering ordering a transfer of detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay to the United States via executive order," their letter said....

Two weeks ago, White House National Security adviser Susan Rice said during an interview that officials in the Obama administration would "die trying" to close Guantanamo Bay prison, something President Obama promised to do during his 2008 presidential campaign. Last summer we saw the exchange of Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl (someone Rice said served with "honor and distinction") for five top Taliban commanders. Now, just two days after ISIS carried out the worst terror attack in France since World War II, the Obama administration has transferred five more detainees to the United Arab Emirates.

Two weeks ago, White House National Security adviser Susan Rice said during an interview that officials in the Obama administration would "die trying" to close Guantanamo Bay prison, something President Obama promised to do during his 2008 presidential campaign. Last summer we saw the exchange of Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl (someone Rice said served with "honor and distinction") for five top Taliban commanders. Now, just two days after ISIS carried out the worst terror attack in France since World War II, the Obama administration has transferred five more detainees to the United Arab Emirates.The Department of Defense announced late Sunday...

There are times I think Obama does this sort of thing because he knows we'll go ballistic. Late Sunday night (!), the Pentagon announced that 5 Guantanamo detainees were being transferred to the United Arab Emirates. This, despite the fact that today, the president will sign the Defense Reauthorization Act, which contains specific language that would restrict such transfers. The Hill: The Pentagon announced Sunday evening that it has transferred five Guantánamo detainees to the United Arab Emirates, just ahead of President Obama signing a defense bill that would place restrictions on moving prisoners from the facility. "The United States is grateful...

The Department of Defense announced late Sunday that five detainees at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been released and sent to the United Arab Emirates.The transfer of Ali Ahmad Muhammad al-Razihi, Khalid Abd-al-Jabbar Muhammad Uthman al-Qadasi, Adil Said al-Hajj Ubayd al-Busays, Sulayman Awad Bin Uqayl al-Nahdi, and Fahmi Salem Said al-Asani, came after a “comprehensive review” by the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force, according to the Pentagon.The Pentagon said the five Yemeni men were accepted for resettlement in the Persian Gulf nation after U.S. authorities determined they no longer posed a threat.

For the past week, the White House has been talking about its first-day promise to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay — on the last day, if need be, of Barack Obama’s presidency. And it might take that long, too, because Congress has overwhelmingly passed a new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to fund the military that extends a prohibition on transfers from Gitmo. Obama isn’t likely to issue a veto, either: The Senate voted 91-3 on the $607-billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which lays out broad defense policy requirements and restrictions.Obama vetoed the original bill largely...

President Obama's plans to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay took another hit Tuesday as Congress passed the annual defense policy bill that keeps in place a ban on shipping any of the terrorist suspects to the U.S. Mr. Obama has repeatedly objected to the ban and earlier this year vetoed another version of the bill -- but this new version passed the Senate on a 91-3 vote Tuesday, and cleared the House on a 370-58 vote, signaling that he'd have a tough time getting Congress to back him up should be try to veto this one. The move...

President Obama is on a collision course with congressional Republicans over the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, with increasing chatter in Washington that he might seek to close the prison through executive action. The administration is expected to hand over a plan to Congress for shuttering the Cuban prison, in an attempt to fulfill a long-standing campaign pledge before Obama leaves office. But even as Obama seeks cooperation from Congress, White House press secretary Josh Earnest has refused to rule out unilateral action to close the prison camp. Earnest on Friday said Obama "certainly wouldn't take off the table the ability...

The House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a revised $607 billion defense policy bill that restricts President Barack Obama's efforts to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The vote was 370-58. The measure was revised to align with the budget agreement the president signed into law on Monday. The White House said Wednesday Obama remains opposed to provisions hampering his ability to transfer the 112 detainees out of Guantanamo and move them either to other countries or the United States. Spokesman Josh Earnest said there was no veto threat but that the president still must review the bill. Obama...

I recently had the opportunity to travel to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to review the detention facilities housing some of the world's most dangerous terrorists, as well as to meet the brave Americans guarding them every day. On the heels of the president's using Guantanamo as a major reason to veto the National Defense Authorization Act and continue his push to transfer these dangerous terrorists to domestic soil, this trip took on an added level of importance. After visiting, it is clearer than ever to me that Guantanamo is the best place on earth to keep these terrorists....

On Monday, the Obama administration announced that President Obama would veto a defense authorization bill if it did not close down Guantanamo Bay. White House press secretary Josh Earnest explained that the House funding bill would be vetoed “principally because…of the irresponsible way that it funds our national defense priorities, but also because of the efforts to prevent the closure [of] the prison at Guantanamo Bay.” He added that Democrats would sustain Obama’s veto, and defense authorization would die.

Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, whose real name was Ali Mohammed al-Fakheri, 46, took his own life in his prison cell, according to the Libyan newspaper Oea. Information gained from the interrogation of al-Libi was cited on several occasions by the Bush administration as justification for the war in Iraq. He told his CIA interrogators that al-Qaeda had sent two men to Iraq to seek training in chemical and biological weapons in December 2000. Classified documents added that the men did not return, so al-Libi did not know whether the training took place, and that, in any case, he was probably "intentionally...

Kiriakou, 47, was a source for stories by The New York Times and other news organizations in 2008 and 2009 about some of the agency’s most sensitive operations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. ......... that the information Kiriakou supplied to journalists ... enabling defense attorneys there to obtain photographs of CIA operatives suspected of being involved in harsh interrogations. Some of the pictures were subsequently discovered in the cells of high-value detainees.

While the US Congress welcomed the socialist Pope Francis to speak before them, the Obama administration was quietly betraying the American people (again) and acting treasonously against the US Constitution. Mad World News reports: The Pope has been rubbing elbows with American leaders, schmoozing with Washington’s elite, and espousing traditionally liberal talking points during highly politicized speeches, which has kept the media plenty busy covering his every move. As this has been happening, the Obama administration quietly released a man named Abdul Shalabi without anybody taking notice, until now. Shalabi was being held at the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention...

Barack Obama released Osama Bin Laden’s bodyguard this week from Gitmo. Abdul Rahman Shalabi was trained as the 20th hijacker in the 9-11 attacks. 20th hijacker shalabi Obama released Shalabi to Saudi Arabia this week. Shalabi was released from Gitmo on September 21, 2015. Investor’s Business Daily reported, via Pamela Geller: “ How much does President Obama still want the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison shuttered? He just released the man trained to be the 20th hijacker for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. In May, 2008, Rear Adm. David M. Thomas, then-commander of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay, sent...

The military freed one of Guantánamo's most determined hunger strikers to Saudi Arabia Tuesday, a former "forever prisoner" brought here the day Camp X-Ray opened as a suspected bodyguard of Osama bin Laden. The release, to a Saudi jet on this base's air strip, left the prison camp population at 114. Now, 52 of the captives are cleared for release to special security agreements with other countries. Saudi Abdul Rahman Shalabi, 39, was repatriated less than a week after the United States sent a Moroccan home restrained inside a U.S. military cargo plane. The Saudis, however, have a longstanding special...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba The military released one of Guantánamo’s most determined hunger strikers to Saudi Arabia Tuesday, decreasing the prison camp population to 114. Abdul Rahman Shalabi, 39, once held as a “forever prisoner,” was repatriated less than a week after the United States sent a Moroccan home. Typical of past deals, Saudi Arabia sent a jet to pick him up. U.S. forces brought Shalabi to the U.S. Navy base in Cuba on Jan. 11, 2002, the day Camp X-Ray opened, and held him as Detainee 42. He has never been charged with a crime at Guantánamo. His...

The United States said on Tuesday it had transferred Abdul Shalabi, a longtime hunger striker at the Guantanamo Bay prison and described as a bodyguard for former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, to his home country of Saudi Arabia. His departure after more than 13-1/2 years at the Guantanamo facility leaves 114 detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, the Pentagon said in a statement. The U.S. Defense Department has described the 39-year-old Shalabi as a member of al Qaeda and a longtime bodyguard for bin Laden, who received "specialized close combat training for his role as a...

A former Army Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was cleared of spy accusations is now a Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Sen. Barack Obama. Former Capt. James J. Yee was among the delegates who were elected by precinct representatives Saturday at the party's 9th Congressional District convention at North Thurston High School. Others chosen at the gathering were Zach Smith, a former supporter of ex-Sen. John Edwards who is now pledged to Clinton, and Natalie Stevens, an alternate pledged to Obama. Yee, a West Point graduate, was accused in 2003 of being part of a spy ring...