A $106 billion national spending bill that was passed by the U.S. House and Senate last week bars the hosting of Guantanamo Bay detainees in any of the U.S. states and the District of Columbia, but not in the CNMI and other U.S. territories.
The Supplemental War Appropriation, H.R. 2346, is now on President Obama's desk for action. The bill includes about $80 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Because this provision seemed to mean that the U.S. territories were not given equitable treatment I, along with the other four insular area representatives, wrote to President Barrack Obama in protest,” Delegate Gregorio “Kilili” C. Sablan said.
A copy of the actual letter sent by the delegates of the CNMI, Guam, American Samoa and Puerto Rico to Obama has yet to be received from the office of Sablan.
Sablan, however, said that he and the other delegates successfully backed a provision in the 2010 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, H.R. 2996, that specifically prohibits using funds for release of persons held at Guantanamo into the CNMI, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, or Puerto Rico.
He added that the delegates also backed a provision in the 2010 Homeland Security Appropriation, H.R. 2892, that requires that each individual considered for transfer to the continental U.S. or the U.S. territories is first subject to a threat assessment.
One of the CNMI's neighbor, Palau, has agreed to take in Uighur detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison. The Uighurs, Muslim separatists from western China, have been judged not to be enemy combatants or not a threat to the United States but Congress won't allow them to settle in the U.S.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial earlier said, “If all those Muslims are God loving and law abiding and not terrorist, I support (it),” referring to the possibility of the CNMI hosting Guantanamo detainees.
Rep. Ray N. Yumul (R-Saipan) earlier broached the idea of the CNMI hosting the detainees from Guantanamo Bay in light of Obama's decision to close the detention facility within the year, but the issue has not been pursued.
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