For six years I've listened to people on all sides of the debate complain because 'Obama failed to shut down Guantanamo" and for six years I've said it was Congress, not Obama. Well, here you go, straight from the almost-certainly-doomed-to-be-former-Senator from Kansas:
A day after Tea Party hero Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) campaigned with him in Wichita, [Sen. Pat Roberts] threatened to wage a marathon talk session similar to the one Cruz held last year to protest the implementation of ObamaCare.
“I stopped him once from trying to send a Gitmo terrorist to Leavenworth. I shall do it again, I shall do it again and if he tries it again I will shut down the Senate,” Roberts said, referring to the military prison located sixty miles east of his campaign headquarters in Topeka where he spoke to campaign volunteers.
Roberts made a similar threat back in 2009, when Obama originally signaled he wanted to relocate detainees to the United States. At the time, the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, as well as a maximum-security prison in Obama’s home state of Illinois were being considered to house the prisoners.
Roberts told reporters that he would hold the Senate floor for hours on end if necessary to stop Obama.
“We’re going to bring 179 terrorists to the United States including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?” Roberts said, referring to the detainee accused of masterminding the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“Once you get control of the floor you just don’t leave it. Ted Cruz did that with regard to ObamaCare. If necessary, I’ll do it with terrorists,” he said.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who is traveling through the state this week on Roberts’s campaign bus, said he would join the filibuster. Roberts predicted he would have broad support from his colleagues.
“I will have help on this. I can see John McCain there and I can see Lindsey Graham there and I can see Kelly Ayotte there and I can see a whole bunch of other people there,” Roberts said.
Obama ordered the closure of the prison camp as one of his first acts as president, but the Congress overrode him by prohibiting the use of federal funds to transfer detainees.
So please, let's lay this one to rest forever. Congressional inaction is the reason Guantanamo is still open. Not President Obama.
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