Obama: Guantanamo Bay undermines security, must be closed

Katie Niederee, a spokeswoman to Moran, R-Kansas, confirmed the trip and said it was in the works well before President Barack Obama renewed his call Tuesday to shut down the facility, where 91 detainees are now held. However, U.S. officials say 13 different locations, including prison facilities in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas, have been considered.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Obama had yet to convince Americans that moving detainees to US soil is “smart or safe”. The plan offered broad cost estimates.

Describing the jail as a stain on America’s reputation and a catalyst for extremists, Obama said “I don’t want to pass this problem on to the next president”.

There are now 91 detainees at Guantanamo Bay detention center.

“His proposed “systematic” way of closing Guantanamo is to completely ignore the law and circumvent Congress. The President’s plan will force the United States Military to make the impossible decision of following their Commander in Chief or following the law”. This plan has done nothing to change my mind.

“I’ve repeatedly said I do not support the transfer of prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military facility to Colorado”, Bennet said in a statement this morning. The Islamic jihadist terrorist war against the United States and the civilized world continues, and the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay are among the most treacherous. In a town-hall-type session Tuesday, both said they back the president’s plan.

There is some bipartisan support for closing Gitmo. Sen.

Obama also has faced opposition from within his own administration, with the Pentagon accused of slow-pedaling transfers and overstating closure costs. “On the other hand, we are a prison community”.

Clinton concurred: “It is a continuing recruitment advertisement for terrorists…. I’m not ready to endorse a proposal that I haven’t closely evaluated”. The camp has always been widely criticized by foreign governments and human rights organizations.

Meanwhile, others argue closing Guantanamo will keep intelligence officials from questioning captured terrorists because they’ll request a lawyer as soon as they’re detained. Thirty-five are waiting to be transferred to other countries and 10 are moving through the military commission process.

Most of the savings would come from a decrease in the number of troops guarding the reduced population on the USA mainland, although it could cost up to $475 million in one-time expenses to move the men and build or update a facility to hold them.

Global humanitarian concerns are complicating White House plans to close Guantanamo, given that many of those remaining at the prison can not be safely returned to their home countries without facing extreme personal risks. This is the opinion of experts, this is the opinion of many in our military. “Congress must now work with the administration in good faith to effectuate closure”.

Information for this article was contributed by Lolita C. Baldor, Kathleen Hennessey, Deb Riechmann and Donna Cassata of The Associated Press; by Charlie Savage and Julie Hirschfeld Davis of The New York Times; by Karoun Demirjian, Anne Gearan and John Wagner of The Washington Post; and by staff members of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.