Senate Upholds Indefinite Detention, Restricts Transfer of GITMO Detainees

The Defense Bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday is being touted as sending “a clear signal to President Obama to move quickly to get U.S. combat troops out of Afghanistan.” But it also sends another clear message to the president — don’t transfer Guantanamo detainees to U.S. prisons.

The bill “limits the president’s authority in handling terror suspects” by re-affirming “the post-Sept. 11 authorization for the use of military force that allows indefinite detention of enemy combatants.”

To be clear, it also directly “[restricts] the transfer of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay to United States prisons” and upholds the laws denying “suspected terrorists…the right to trial.”

This was a needed move, particularly in light of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) recent push to have detainees transferred from Guantanamo Bay to various U.S. prisons (or to the Thomson Prison the federal government purchased in Illinois before the election).