Pentagon’s Guantanamo plan lays out costs, savings

The spokesman explained that the Obama administration still plans to transfer out as many prisoners as possible and bring the remaining ones to the United States, a move that is opposed by many lawmakers, particularly GOP members of Congress.

In this February 2, 2016 photo, military guards exit an area known as…

President Obama is expected to submit a plan to Congress outlining steps to close Guantanamo Bay.

Gov. Maggie Hassan, Ayotte’s Democratic opponent in the closely-watched Senate race, will review the plan but believes Guantanamo “should not be closed until there’s a concrete plan in place to ensure the safety of our citizens and that prisoners won’t return to the battlefield”, a spokesman told WMUR.com on Monday night.

The plan will include costs for upgrading U.S. facilities and housing the inmates there, according to a source familiar with the matter. But he sent a letter to Obama warning that Congress has made clear what details must be included in any plan and that anything less than that would be unacceptable.

The White House has been mulling over several potential sites, including a navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina; the US Justice Department’s Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado; and another two facilities at the army base in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas – the US Disciplinary Barracks and Midwest Joint Regional Corrections Facility.

Those deemed too risky for travel will be sent to a detention facility in the U.S.

For many years, lawmakers have banned any transfer of detainees into the United States. Of those, 46 are being held as wartime detainees and have not been recommended for transfer, while 35 are on a transfer list.

Seven detainees are in the early stages of trial by military commission, including the five men accused of planning and aiding the September 11 terrorist attack, and three have been convicted and are serving sentences. Second, that we will continue to prosecute those who can be prosecuted.

Ninety-one detainees now remain in Guantanamo – down from 242 in 2009, when President Obama took office. And, third, that there’s this small group of individuals that can neither be safely transferred nor prosecuted.