US To Review Colorado Prisons For Guantanamo Detainees

By CPR News Staff and The Associated Press

October 2, 2015

Senior U.S. officials say a Defense Department team will be visiting a state and a federal prison in Colorado to assess their possible use to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the Obama administration's plan to close that detention center.

Officials say that within the next two weeks, the team will visit the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City and a medium-security federal prison in Florence.

The Pentagon team has also surveyed the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina. The reviews assess construction costs and other changes needed to house the detainees and conduct military commission trials.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the visits publicly.

Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn says he's opposed to any detainee transfers into his state:

“It is outrageous and unacceptable for President Obama to waste time and taxpayer dollars on a dangerous fantasy that will go nowhere," he said in a statement. "The people of Colorado do not want the world’s worst terrorists housed in our own backyard and we will not stand for this.”