As President Obama moved forward with plans to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to facilities within the United States, U.S. Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Tim Scott (R-SC) aired their concerns with the proposal on Sunday.
“White House press secretary Josh Earnest said recently that the Obama administration is in the ‘final stages of drafting a plan to safely and responsibly’ close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay,” Roberts and Scott wrote in an op-ed piece published in The Wall Street Journal. “Our home states of Kansas and South Carolina are being considered as potential sites for housing the enemy combatants transferred from Guantanamo.”
Department of Defense officials visited Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on Aug. 14 and the Naval Brig in Charleston, South Carolina on Monday to survey the facilities as possible sites to house the detainees.
“The notion that Kansas, South Carolina or any other state would be an ideal home for terrorist detainees is preposterous,” Scott and Roberts wrote. “Transferring these prisoners to the mainland puts the well-being of states in danger, posing security risks to the public and wasting taxpayer dollars. The detention facilities at Guantanamo are doing a fantastic job of holding these terrorists.”
The Senators reiterated the fact that Fort Leavenworth is on the Missouri River, adjacent to a public railroad, only 16 miles from Kansas City International Airport, and surrounded by schools and homes. Charleston’s Naval Consolidated Brig is adjacent to several residential neighborhoods, less than a mile from a school, close to the Port of Charleston, as well as the Charleston International Airport, and is surrounded by military facilities.
“Closing Guantanamo Bay isn’t taking the fight to the enemy; it’s bringing it home,” they continued. “Of serious concern is that there is no way to control who the terrorists would attract to our communities. We should be doing everything possible to destroy homegrown terrorism, not encouraging it.”