Lawmakers seeking method to choke off funds for Guantanamo

[struggle4progress]

Posted on Wed, Feb. 14, 2007

By Carol Rosenberg and Lesley Clark

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON - Two key Democrats in Congress disclosed Wednesday that they are digging through Defense Department funding mechanisms to find a method to choke off funding for the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities.

"We're looking at a schedule - a reasonable schedule - to close it down in stages," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said in a broadcast on National Public Radio. "We can limit the funds for it and that would shut it down."

The Pentagon declined to respond to a query on Murtha's plan - how feasible the proposal was and whether there is in fact Guantanamo-specific funding that Congress could cut from future appropriations.

"I don't have anything for you on this," said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, the Pentagon's spokesman for Guantanamo ...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/16699745.htm