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Testifying in front of the House Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch reiterated that transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay Prison to the United States is against the law. From the Washington Times: Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday that federal law flatly prevents President Obama from sending of the the detainees from Guantanamo Bay to U.S. territory, hurting his ability to follow through on his new closure plan. "That is the state of the law," she said, pointing to the most recent defense policy law passed late last year, which cleared Congress on a bipartisan vote and which Mr. Obama...

Bringing dangerous Guantanamo Bay inmates to U.S. prisons would undermine a terrorist recruiting tool, White House spokesman Josh Earnest argued on Tuesday: "Well, their argument would be a lot tougher, because the detention that we would have in place would be cleanly in line with American values, right? That we would ensure that this is consistent with the way that American citizens are treated. That certainly is more consideration than these terrorists give to their adversaries, to say the least." ...

President Barack Obama has renewed his call for closing down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and has thereby refreshed his conflict with congressional Republicans over the future of the facility, currently home to 91 sundry villains captured abroad during our ongoing national confrontation with the forces of radical Islam. Gitmo presents the government with a triple bind: For President Obama, Gitmo is a hated symbol of President George W. Bush’s (purported) bellicosity and disregard for civil liberties; never mind that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate currently resident in the White House has discovered a strange, new, and convenient...

President Obama is urging Congress to approve the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, allow for the transfer of remaining detainees to the U.S. and try them in U.S. courts. In calling for the policy change, Obama said the move would save taxpayers money without compromising security. In fact, Obama argues that America is less safe because of the facility.

Talking to Republican Colorado Senator Cory Gardner during her MSNBC show on Tuesday, host Andrea Mitchell lectured the GOP lawmaker on opposing President Obama’s plan to shut down Guantanamo Bay and bring terrorist detainees to prisons inside the United States: “So we’re holding prisoners, paying for them, and arguably hurting our standing in the world because Guantanamo has become such a red flag everywhere in the world, when we could have them locked up in the U.S. and put away for life.” In response, Gardner completely ripped apart her argument: “Well, actually, again, if you are a terrorist you belong...

A selection of lunch meals offered to detainees are displayed in a food preparation area.Automobile magazines are among the reading material available at the detainee library, March 7, 2013.Harry Potter movies are among the titles available at the detainee library inside Camp Delta,

President Obama's plan to shutter the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ran into a buzz saw of opposition on Tuesday, underscoring how difficult it will be for him to fulfill a major campaign promise inhis final year in office. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) best summed up the attitudes of his colleagues: He crumpled up the proposal and tossed it in the trash.

Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility after delivering his plan to Congress to achieve a goal that has long eluded his presidency. The blueprint comes seven years after Obama made an Oval Office vow to permanently shutter the prison for enemy combatants, but it already faces objections from Republicans and legal obstacles they have placed to transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. prisons. Obama nonetheless said emptying the prison would move the country past what he described as a troubled era of wartime behavior. "The plan we're putting forward today isn't...

Count Mitch McConnell among the unimpressed with Barack Obama’s plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The Senate Majority Leader responded to Obama’s declared plan to transfer its detainees to one or more of thirteen potential locations within the US by reminding the President that Congress has opposed such a move on a bipartisan basis. And, by the way, such a move would be illegal — under bills Obama has already signed: McConnell: Congress Opposed to Obama Gitmo Plan Count Paul Ryan among the unimpressed as well: My statement on the Obama administration's Guantanamo plan: https://t.co/0wTrIyF5ya pic.twitter.com/eHDWP763Tt— Paul...

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) responded to President Obama's plan on Tuesday for closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay by throwing the proposal in the trash.

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Tuesday that President Obama is pushing to shutter the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility as final gift to the Castros before leaving office. "I believe that President Obama intends to try to give the Guantanamo naval facility to Raul and Fidel Castro as a parting gift," Cruz told a couple hundred voter in Nevada, according to The Washington Post . "Four decades ago, Jimmy Carter gave away the Panama Canal. We built it, we paid for it, and then a feckless left-wing president gave it away to undermine this country. Well, Mr. President, you...

President Obama on Tuesday sent Congress a long-awaited plan for closing the Guantánamo Bay prison, beginning a final push to fulfill a campaign promise and one of his earliest national security policy goals in the face of deep skepticism from many Republican lawmakers. Congress required Mr. Obama to present a plan as part of the most recent defense authorization bill, and its basic approach echoed the strategy the administration has already been pursuing for seven years. It centers on bringing between 30 and 60 detainees who are deemed too dangerous to release to a prison on domestic soil, while transferring...

President Obama's views on the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center - namely that the facility "does not advance our national security", but "undermines it" - runs counter to the views of [former] U.S Navy admiral and commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, William McRaven, who, when asked by Sen. Kelly Ayotte - during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in June of 2011 - whether there was a need for a long-term detention & interrogation facility, like Guantanamo Bay, to gather vital intelligence information - replied in the affirmative, saying that a detention center of this nature is indeed "very...

President Obama detailed Tuesday a four-point plan he'll submit to Congress to eventually close the detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba -- a plan that includes releasing more of the remaining 91 detainees, while transferring others to an as-yet determined facility on U.S. soil.

The White House has revealed its plans for closing the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention facility, one of the president's long-standing goals. The Pentagon has proposed transferring the remaining 91 detainees to their home countries or to US military or civilian prisons. But Congress is deeply opposed and expected to block the move. The prison costs $445m (£316m) to run annually and closing it was an early promise from President Barack Obama. He told reporters on Tuesday the prison undermines national security. "This is about closing a chapter in our history," said Mr Obama. "It reflects the lessons we've learned since...

President Barack Obama on Tuesday presented a long-awaited plan to Congress to shut down the controversial detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, insisting that keeping the prison open is "contrary to our values." "It's been clear that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay does not advance our national security," Obama said from the Roosevelt Room at the White House. "It undermines our standing in the world." The plan, which has been on Obama's agenda since he took office in 2009, hinges on the transfer of between 30 and 60 detainees to U.S. soil, and suggesting several possible locations in South Carolina,...

U.S. officials say the Pentagon's long-awaited plan to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer the remaining detainees to a facility in the United States calls for up to $475 million in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operating cost savings. The plan, which will be delivered to Congress Tuesday, is the administration's last-ditch effort to make good on President Barack Obama's campaign vow to close Guantanamo and convince lawmakers to allow the Defense Department to move nearly 60 detainees to the U.S. But the plan...

The Pentagon is poised to submit a plan to Congress for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, a spokesman said Monday. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the administration will meet the Tuesday deadline for submitting a proposal for closing the facility and moving its terrorist detainees. "We understand that the deadline is tomorrow, and it's our intent to meet it," Davis said. The plan will call for the closure of the detention facility and lay out several options on how to do so, Davis said. President Obama is pushing to close the prison and fulfill a long-standing campaign promise before...

In the frantic effort to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo the Obama administration keeps freeing the world's most dangerous terrorists, this month a Taliban soldier who served as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard. The Yemeni, Majid Mahmud Abdu Ahmed, will be released to an Arabic-speaking country with "appropriate security assurances" and "reintegration support," according to the Periodic Review Board (PRB) created by the president to clear out the compound at the U.S. military base in southeast Cuba. "The Periodic Review Board, by consensus, determined that continued law of war detention of the detainee is no longer necessary to protect...