A plan to move the remaining detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a now-closed correctional facility in Illinois hit an unexpected roadblock when Congress refused to allocate funds for purchasing the prison, the New York Times reports. Without that funding, the White House says it will likely be unable to close the infamous military prison in Cuba until at least 2011. (more)

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate suspected terrorists indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations. (more)

The first detainee from Guantanamo Bay has been transferred to the US, opening up questions for the Obama administration over how many more detainees will be sent here, and what will happen to them if they are acquitted. (more)

'We're not going to bring al Qaeda to Big Sky Country. No way, not on my watch," declared Montana Sen. Max Baucus. "I wouldn't want them and I wouldn't take them," insisted Nebraska's Ben Nelson. Not Quantico, piped up Virginia's Mark Warner. After all, it "is in a very populated area in the greater capital region." Look, "Alcatraz is a national park and a tourist attraction, not a functioning prison" for terrorists, said the office of California's Dianne Feinstein. Chad Crowe All Democrats in favor... (more)

Virginia Congressman Jim Moran (D) said in a Washington Post op-ed that his home district of Alexandria would be willing to host some of the terrorist detainees currently held at the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Moran, after acknowledging the logistical and financial burdens hosting the prisoners would place on the community, nevertheless said that Alexandria would do its "civic duty" if asked by the Obama Administration. Alexandria has hosted terrorists before, serving as the site ... (more)

Dealing sensibly with detainees requires cooperation, within the branches of our own government and with other nations. (more)

The Uighurs would be the first detainees from the prison to settle in America. Challenges are expected from China and within the U.S. Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration is preparing to admit into the United States as many as seven Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in the first release of any of the detainees into this country, according to current and former U.S. officials (more)

There were once 22 Uighur prisoners in Guantánamo. Muslims from China's oppressed Xinjiang province, they had all been swept up as human debris during "Operation Enduring Freedom," the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that began in October 2001. The majority of these men were seized after fleeing to Pakistan from a run-down settlement in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains, which had been hit in a U.S. bombing raid. Initially welcomed by Pakistani villagers, they were then betrayed and sold to U.S. forces,... (more)

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that 17 Turkic Muslims cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay must stay at the prison camp, raising the stakes for an Obama administration that has pledged to quickly close the facility and free those who have not been charged. In a showdown over presidential power, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said a judge went too far last October in ordering the U.S. entry of the 17 men, known as Uighurs (WEE'-gurz), over the objections of t... (more)