US to review southern Colorado prisons for Guantanamo detainees
Senior U.S. officials say a Defense Department team will be visiting a state and a federal prison in Colorado to assess their possible use to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the Obama administration’s plan to close that detention center.
Officials say that within the next two weeks the team will visit the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City and the so-called Supermax federal prison in Florence.
The Pentagon team has also surveyed the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina. The reviews assess construction costs and other changes needed to house the detainees and conduct military commission trials.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the visits publicly.
Congressman Doug Lamborn released a statement Friday afternoon saying he opposes the move. “Despite House passage of an NDAA that strictly prohibits the transfer of terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, the Obama Administration is instructing DOD officials to come investigate the Federal Supermax facility in Florence and a Colorado penitentiary facility in Canon City as potential destinations for terrorists. It is outrageous and unacceptable for President Obama to waste time and taxpayer dollars on a dangerous fantasy that will go nowhere. The people of Colorado do not want the world’s worst terrorists housed in our own backyard and we will not stand for this. I will do everything in my power to resist these unlawful terrorist transfers from taking place.”
Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado Springs, represents the 5th Congressional District. Both prisons are located in Lamborn’s district.
