Senator James Webb said yesterday that he disagrees with President Obama’s plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within one year. Noting that “we spend hundreds of millions of dollars building an appropriate facility with all security precautions in Guantanamo to try these cases,” Webb argued that “we shouldn’t be creating artificial deadlines for Gitmo’s closure. He also said that he opposes bringing any detainees to U.S. soil.
Webb’s position, a response perhaps to the prospect of having detainees transferred to Virginia, would appear to place him to the right of Lindsey Graham. In January, when Obama signed the executive order for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay facility within a year, Sen. Graham (along with Sen. McCain) issued a press release supporting the president. Graham and McCain expressed no disagreement with the president’s timetable for implementing his decision.
More recently, Graham has said that Congress shouldn’t authorize any money to close Guantanamo Bay’s prison until the nation has a new way to handle those seized because of suspected terrorist ties. However, Graham also said that he does not oppose bringing Gitmo detainees to the U.S.
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