By: Bob McCarty
Bob McCarty Writes

Today, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called on his Democrat and Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate to stand by their commitment to prevent Gitmo detainees from being transferred to the U.S. by signing on to his legislation (S.370).

Senators Inhofe and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) yesterday introduced a bi-partisan amendment to prevent funding in the current War Supplemental bill, which passed today by an overwhelming vote of 90-6. Though a temporary victory occurred when Senate Democrats conceded to Senator Inhofe and other Senate Republicans to remove funding for any such transfers from the War Supplemental Appropriations legislation and voted against the funding today, Senator Inhofe’s bill would prevent this funding in any future appropriations bills as well.

“Though I am very pleased that Democrats in the Senate reversed course and voted today against including the $80 million in the war supplemental to close Gitmo, it is very likely that this funding could be included in future appropriations bills,” Senator Inhofe said.

“I am encouraging all of my colleagues to sign onto my legislation to prevent any future funding for detainee transfers to the U.S. President Obama’s Executive Order to close Gitmo failed to take into consideration the monetary and security costs accrued by closing Gitmo such as what happens to current detainees at GITMO, what the military would do with detainees held in other military prisons around the world, how the military should handle terrorists captured in the future, and what judicial process is going to be used.

“I’ve long said, the detainee complex at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is the only complex in the world that can safely and humanely hold enemy combatants that pose the highest level of threat to the US.”

Republican Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) yesterday praised Senator Inhofe’s efforts to protect Americans from any transfers to U.S. soil of terrorists, saying, “I particularly want to thank Senator Inhofe who’s been one of our leaders on this subject for a long time and reminded everyone today that he was down at Guantanamo not too long after 9/11, has been there a number of times. I have been there myself. We all know it is a state-of-the-art facility in which the detainees are appropriately and humanely treated.”