Appropriations panel blocks Dem changes to Gitmo, drone policies

“We could show greater confidence in the American system of
justice and in fact it would improve our own security,” Moran said. “The
military commissions are not working.”

{mosads}Republicans argued that the facility at Guantanamo has been
successful at holding terrorists, and they warned that releasing those
currently there could lead to them re-joining the fight against the U.S.

A report last year found 28 percent of released Guantanamo detainees had re-joined or were suspected of re-joining the terror fight.

The committee also blocked an attempt from Rep. Betty
McCollum (D-Minn.) to move lethal drone operations from the CIA to the Pentagon.
President Obama expressed a desire to move drone operations under military control
during his national security speech last month, but Defense Appropriations
Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.) said that the White House opposed the amendment.

“This sets up some real constitutional issues,” Young said. “This
committee has never really directed the president for the affairs of a
particular battle or particular weapons system.”

The amendment was defeated by a voice vote, and Rogers ruled
afterward that not enough members had requested the roll-call that McCollum
asked for.

GOP members of the committee also rejected an amendment from
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) that would have repealed the Authorization for the
Use of Military Force (AUMF), the law that authorizes the war on terror.

Lee’s amendment would have ended the AUMF at the same time
that combat operations in Afghanistan ended in 2014.

Young said that he had sympathy toward wanting to have our
troops out of Afghanistan “yesterday,” but said that the military force law had
to stay in place.

“Al Qaeda is not going away, and has no intention of going
away,” he said.

The amendment was defeated 20-31.

Lee proposed a subsequent amendment, which was also
defeated, that would have requested a report on when the administration had used the AUMF to justify actions against those behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The policy amendments were considered during the
Appropriations Committee’s mark-up of the Defense spending bill, which would allocate
$512.5 billion in base Pentagon spending an d $85.8 billion for the war in
Afghanistan.