[Peace-discuss] Wasn't even close

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Predictable betrayal by Democratic hypocrites.  --CGE]

	Published on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 by Agence France Presse
	Congress Approves $106 Bln for War

WASHINGTON - Congress on Tuesday gave final approval to a 106 billion dollar 
emergency bill to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, shore up efforts to 
fight swine flu, and fund US participation in the IMF.

By a vote of 226 to 202, lawmakers in the US House of Representatives approved a 
compromise version of legislation, to reconcile differing House and Senate versions.

Among other budget items, the measure provides 79.9 billion dollars for the wars 
in Iraq and Afghanistan, 7.7 billion dollars to combat the A(H1N1) flu virus, 
and eight billion dollars for the International Monetary Fund.

House Democrat David Obey, a key figure during negotiations on the spending 
measure talks in that chamber, acknowledged some resistance among lawmakers to 
the IMF funding, but said the monies were necessary to bolster a still-sagging 
global economy.

"You know, this is a tough reality. We have to participate in the world, and 
when the world economy becomes shaky, we have a responsibility to ourselves to 
try to stabilize that world economic situation," he said.

The supplemental spending measure was bogged down after the Senate legislation 
-- over the objections of Democrats in the House -- banned public release of the 
controversial images allegedly showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and 
Afghanistan at the hands of US military personnel.

President Barack Obama broke the logjam last week, however, offering in a letter 
to negotiators, to "continue to take every legal and administrative remedy 
available to me to ensure the ... detainee photographs are not released."

The compromise bill also includes provisions on prisoners held at Guantanamo 
Bay, but does not include the 80 million dollars originally requested by the 
Obama administration to close the detention facility at the US naval base in 
southern Cuba, where some 230 detainees remain.

Under the agreement reached by the Senate and the House, a Democratic source 
said the government could transfer some prisoners to US soil only to face trial, 
although the highly sensitive issue of where they would serve out their sentence 
remains unresolved.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/16-10