Durbin visiting Gitmo today

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) visits the much criticized U.S. prison in Cuba.

July 10, 2006

DURBIN VISITS GUANTANAMO BAY DETENTION FACILITY TODAY

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) is scheduled to travel to Guantnamo Bay Naval Base at the southeastern end of Cuba today as part of an official fact finding trip. U.S. Sen. Gorge Allen (R-VA) is also accompanying Durbin on the trip.

Guantnamo Bay Naval Base has been used by the United States Navy for more than a century. The United States controls the land on both sides of the southern part of Guantnamo Bay under a lease set up in the wake of the 1898 Spanish-American War. Since 2001, the naval base has contained a detainment camp for persons alleged to be militant combatants captured in Afghanistan and later in Iraq.

Durbin and Allen are scheduled to visit a variety of the detention facilities at Guantnamo, be briefed by GTMO commanders and eat lunch with Illinois and Virginia soldiers. Due to security concerns, more specific details of the trip will not be released until after the senators return to Washington this evening.

Durbin is the Assistant Democratic Leader and serves on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Defense and Foreign Operations. He also serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee which is scheduled to begin hearings tomorrow on military commissions such as those used to send detainees to Guantnamo Bay.

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