Murtha will press for closure of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib

WASHINGTON — The House lawmaker in charge of defense spending said Friday that he intends to force the closure of the Guantánamo Bay military prison and curb U.S. engagement in Iraq, and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "absolutely" supports his efforts.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said Congress shouldn't provide funds for sending more soldiers overseas until the Bush administration takes those steps and others, including restoring the Army's ability to respond to other crises by increasing troop strength of the strategic reserve, those forces able to deploy urgently anywhere.

"We have no ability to deploy and sustain a deployment in Iran or Korea, and the enemy knows this," Murtha said.

Murtha, chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said he would push for a plan to pressure the Bush administration to make the changes he seeks to get the money it wants for the Iraq war.

President Bush is expected to ask in February for $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His plan to add 21,500 troops in Iraq is estimated to cost an additional $5.6 billion.

Murtha wants Bush to halt the troop increase he announced Wednesday night and start bringing U.S. forces home. He said he wouldn't cut funds for those already fighting.

He said the best way to control what course the war takes is for Congress to attach conditions to war-spending bills, because Bush is unlikely to veto a bill that provides money to keep fighting.

The Guantánamo military prison, where prisoners have been held without charges and abused, need to be closed to restore U.S. credibility, Murtha said.

If the full House passes Murtha's plan, the measure would need approval by the Senate, where Democrats have a 51-49 majority. While up to a dozen Republican senators have criticized Bush's war plan, it's unclear how much support Murtha's plan would have.

But some Republicans in both houses increasingly are signaling they're uncomfortable with Bush's war policy. House Republicans called an unusual "listening session" Friday to gauge the growing resistance in the party to the president's plan and to allow lawmakers to vent.

"Members of our party are skeptical" about whether the troop increase fundamentally would improve conditions in Iraq, said Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., chairman of the House Republican Caucus. Putnam, usually a staunch Bush supporter, said he, too, has concerns about the proposed troop increase.

In the Senate, John Warner, R-Va., a former Navy secretary and senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Friday that the idea of attaching conditions to war appropriations "is worthy of intense review," but added, "That's all I have to say about it."

Warner joined Democrats on Friday in pressing Defense Secretary Robert Gates for a commitment that Bush isn't planning to send U.S. forces across the Iraq border into Iran and Syria.

"We believe that we can interrupt these networks that are providing support through actions inside the territory of Iraq. There is no need to attack targets in Iran itself," Gates said.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., introduced a House resolution Friday that would require the president to receive congressional authorization to use military force against Iran.

Gates also said Bush's new plan to secure Baghdad will begin in earnest with a push by thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops in the first week of February, and its chances of success should be evident within months.

If the plan works, the United States could begin drawing down troop levels by the end of the year, he said. If the Iraqi government does not deliver troops and political and economic support, he said, the United States could withhold many of the additional troops Bush has ordered.

Some details on Gates' testimony were reported by The Washington Post.

The Associated Press provided details on Bush's war-funding request.