AFP: Republicans Seek to Block Guantanamo Releases Into US

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Top House Republicans announced Wednesday they would unveil a bill aimed at blocking the transfer or release of detainees from the Guantanamo Bay facility for terrorism suspects into the United States.

The "Keep Terrorists Out of America Act," to be announced at a press conference Thursday, comes after Republicans have spent weeks pounding President Barack Obama's decision to close the prison by late January 2010.

The attacks have left Obama's Democratic allies on the defensive over what to do about 240 prisoners -- many of them cleared of terrorism charges and awaiting release -- at a facility seen by many around the world as a symptom of excessive US "war on terrorism" policies after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

House Minority Leader John Boehner and the numbers two and three Republicans, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence, as well as the top Republicans on the House intelligence, homeland security, armed services, foreign affairs, and judiciary committees, were set to attend.

The proposal mandate that no prisoner could be released or transferred into the United States unless the destination state's governor and legislature sign off on the plan, a source familiar with the plan told AFP on condition of anonymity.

It would require Obama to give lawmakers the name of the detainee and their proposed destination in the United States, where the prisoners enjoy more legal protections than on the US military base in Cuba, the source said.

It would require Obama to detail the expected effect on the detainee's possible prosecution on terrorism charges and the effect on the US government's ability to continue to hold them, the source said.

And it would require Obama to detail the possible impact of transferring the detainee to US soil on their ability to win a federal court's order for their release, the source said.