His one-year deadline to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has long passed, obviously, but President Obama has ramped up his search for a site for “Guantanamo North.” However, Governors Sam Brownback and Nikki Haley co-signed a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter telling him that any plan to move prisoners from Gitmo to Fort Leavenworth or Joint Base Charleston was both unwelcome and illegal.
The Pentagon’s search team then headed to Colorado to tour the Federal Correctional Complex in Florence and the state penitentiary in Canon City. That has resulted in a letter to President Obama signed by the attorneys general of all three states arguing the legality of transferring Gitmo prisoners to the United States.
“Moving detainees to the mainland will create imminent danger and make the communities where they are placed targets, which is precisely what the restrictive language enacted by Congress is designed to prevent,” they write, continuing, “Recent attacks in France, Egypt, Lebanon and elsewhere underscore the risk your illegal action would bring to our states.
“Your proposed action denigrates the Constitution and defies the rule of law.”
most interesting – state AGs already talking to @SpeakerRyan & @SenJohnMcCain on how to prevent GITMO exec action pic.twitter.com/WtaZaKWFfr
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) November 18, 2015
Expect the president to turn a deaf ear to both the governors and attorneys general as he pursues his plan to admit more Syrian refugees, but the attorneys general have found an ally in new House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The delay of the president's plan to close Guantanamo Bay should be permanent.
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) November 19, 2015
https://twitter.com/GopKurtz/status/667131321228070913
https://twitter.com/Markallenjobe1/status/667130894365433856
@SpeakerRyan U already R doing more 4 America than Boehner did. thanks
— Humbled by Grace Cottage (@2humbledbygrace) November 19, 2015
@speakerryan He's obsessed with closing it in the same way he is obsessed with populating America with as many Muslims as he can. WHY?
— Blessyourheart! (@evegpt_eve) November 19, 2015
https://twitter.com/a2221b41e7f4405/status/667133226897420289
@SpeakerRyan Time to expand it, we're buddies with Cuba now. ??
— Just Hoss (@hosshuber) November 19, 2015
@SpeakerRyan you got my support. Honeymoon is over. Get ready for the 13 month sh..t storm to come. #FIGHTBACK
— Gary Thurman (@Tmansthought) November 19, 2015
@SpeakerRyan So how was it that he was able to release 5 more from Guantanamo the other day. Let more out to come back and fight & kill us.
— Matilda16Oct (@Matilda16Oct) November 19, 2015
@SpeakerRyan But, Obama will just continue releasing them. His stubbornness is ridiculous..
— ?Warren? (@warrenga61) November 19, 2015
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