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President Obama wants to make good on his promise to close Guantanamo Bay before he leaves office. If he does, where will the prisoners go?
If you live in Colorado, they could be headed for your home state.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday he is getting a plan ready for President Barack Obama that would transfer some detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison to a secure facility in the United States, with prisons in Colorado reportedly being the most likely locations.
…Many lawmakers and commentators have expressed legal and security concerns over bringing detainees to the U.S. homeland. CNN’s Jake Tapper said on Thursday he was “confused” about the Pentagon’s plan “because it has been the law of the land since the beginning of the Obama presidency, when Democrats controlled Congress, that these detainees cannot be transferred from Gitmo to the United States.”
He then asked Barbara Starr, CNN’s Pentagon correspondent, “How can the Obama administration transfer them without breaking the law?”
“Really good question, isn’t it?” Starr said.
The White House just released 10 detainees this week out of Guantanamo Bay, sending them to Oman (an Arab nation on the Persian Gulf). There is absolutely no guarantee that those detainees won’t immediately return to terrorist activity.
Is there a way to close Guantanamo Bay responsibly and legally? Is that really what Obama should be focusing on right now? Let us know in the comments!
You can watch Tapper’s exchange here: