Home
HOUSE DEFENSE SPENDING BILL AT ODDS WITH OBAMA, IRAQ
4/1/15
A nearly $612 billion defense policy bill headed to the House floor is at odds with the White House, a Shiite cleric in Iraq and anyone who wants to bar lethal aid to Ukrainian forces fighting Russian-backed rebels.
The Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee were victorious in batting down dozens of amendments during a more than 18-hour marathon session, which was gaveled to a close at 4:39 a.m. Thursday. The 60-2 vote left Chairman Mac Thornberry's version of the measure pretty much intact.
Provisions of the bill, which will be taken up by the full House next month, would make it harder for President Obama to make good on a campaign promise to close the military prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
It also calls for giving one-quarter of the $715 million to train and equip the Iraqi army directly to Sunni and Kurdish fighters. That provoked a warning from cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who apparently is tuned in to the finer points of the complex budget process on Capitol Hill.
"In the event of approving this bill by the U.S. Congress, we will find ourselves obliged to unfreeze the military wing and start targeting the American interests in Iraq - even abroad, which is doable," al-Sadr said in a statement on his website.
The Iraqi government has also rejected the provision.
"Any weapons supplying will be done only through the Iraqi government," it said. "The draft law proposed by the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. Congress is rejected, and it will lead to more division in the region and we urge it be stopped."
On Ukraine, the bill authorizes $200 million to help arm Ukrainian forces fighting Russian-backed separatists.
On Guantanamo, the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, tried but failed to amend the authorization to remove restrictions on transferring terror suspects out of the military prison in Cuba. The measure that passed reauthorizes a ban on transferring detainees to the United States or building detention facilities in the United States to hold them.
It also rescinds the president's authority to unilaterally transfer prisoners as he did when he exchanged five Taliban detainees for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive for five years.
fayobserver.com
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
