US lawmakers have effectively blocked President Barack Obama's efforts to close the controversial terror prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by approving a Pentagon budge that forbids spending money on the move. After months of wrangling, both the House and Senate Wednesday approved a 725.9-billion-dollar defence spending plan for the fiscal year that began October 1, 2010.
Included in the bill is language that makes it virtually impossible to close the prison by building a substitute prison or relocating prisoners to the United States. The budget prohibits the use of defence funding "to construct or modify a facility within the United States to house detainees transferred from the Guantanamo detention facility" or "to transfer, release or assist in the transfer or release of Guantanamo detainees to or within the United States."
Given the difficulty the US has had finding third countries to take former detainees, even those cleared of wrong-doing, not moving them to a new prison leaves the administration few options. The defence department is also forbidden from sending former Guantanamo detainees to countries where others "were transferred and subsequently returned to terrorist activities."
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