Administration Prepares to Defy Efforts to Limit Obama’s Options (Gitmo)

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Administration Prepares to Defy Efforts to Limit Obama’s Options for Guantanamo
by Dafna Linzer
ProPublica, Jan. 3, 2011, 1:17 p.m.


Obama administration officials say they plan to reject Congressional efforts to limit the president's options on Guantanamo, setting the stage for a confrontation between the president and the new Congress on an issue that has been politically divisive since Inauguration Day.

The Guantanamo provisions, which include limits on where and how prisoners can be tried, were attached to a spending bill for military pay and benefits approved by Congress late last year. White House aides are recommending that President Obama sign the spending bill and then issue a "signing statement" challenging at least some of the Guantanamo provisions as intrusions on his constitutional authority.

The statement, officials said, would likely be released along with a new executive order that outlined review procedures for some -- but not all -- of the 174 Guantanamo prisoners still held without charge or trial.

Obama has used signing statements in the past, but this one would carry political significance as the first test of his relationship with a Congress in which the House is firmly in Republican control.

http://www.propublica.org/article/administration-prepares-to-defy-efforts-to-limit-obamas-options-for-guantan

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1. BIG K&R on this one! n/t

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2. Kick

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