Pentagon eyes more potential sites for Guantánamo detainees

[Valin]

The Hill:

Kristina Wong

09/03/15

 

A Pentagon team is planning to visit a “handful” of additional locations in its search for a site on the mainland to house Guantánamo Bay detainees, risking the wrath of lawmakers wary of having terrorism suspects shipped to their backyard. The Defense Department is keeping the new potential sites under wraps, cautioning that the list is not final. Revealing the locations could also spark a backlash similar to the first round of visits to military prisons in Kansas and South Carolina.

 

The Pentagon on Wednesday said the new sites would be military and non-military, and that surveyors were also looking for a site where military commissions for the detainees could be held. The trips will help inform the Pentagon’s plan — requested by * Congress — for closing the prison facility, something that President Obama had promised to do during his first run for the White House in 2008.

 

But while the Pentagon is making progress on its plan, officials from across the administration acknowledge that closing the prison will be a difficult endeavor, and that they're not sure Obama has the political will — or the support on Capitol Hill — to make it happen. ** Defense officials encountered fierce opposition when touring Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, with protests coming from the state’s Republican governors, senators and lawmakers.

 

(Snip)

 

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* Democrats in Congress

 

** and anyone with the brains God gave an animal cracker.