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Critics: Changing Guantanamo prison’s ZIP code isn’t a fix

FILE – In this March 30, 2010, file photo, reviewed by the U.S. military, a U.S. trooper stands in the turret of a vehicle with a machine gun, left, as a guard looks out from a tower at the detention facility of Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. President Barack Obama’s quest to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, perhaps by moving some detainees to the United States, has sparked an unusual alliance between his congressional critics and liberal-leaning advocacy groups that say changing the detention facility’s ZIP code won’t solve the problem. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
FILE – In this March 30, 2010, file photo, reviewed by the U.S. military, a U.S. trooper stands in the turret of a vehicle with a machine gun, left, as a guard looks out from a tower at the detention facility of Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. President Barack Obama’s quest to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, perhaps by moving some detainees to the United States, has sparked an unusual alliance between his congressional critics and liberal-leaning advocacy groups that say changing the detention facility’s ZIP code won’t solve the problem. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File) FILE – In this March 30, 2010, file photo, reviewed by the U.S. military, a U.S. trooper stands in the turret of a vehicle with a machine gun, left, as a guard looks out from a tower at the detention facility of Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. President Barack Obama’s quest to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, perhaps by moving some detainees to the United States, has sparked an unusual alliance between his congressional critics and liberal-leaning advocacy groups that say changing the detention facility’s ZIP code won’t solve the problem. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

By Associated Press 5 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama’s quest to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, perhaps by moving some detainees to the United States, has fostered an unusual alliance between his congressional critics and liberal-leaning advocacy groups that say changing the detention facility’s ZIP code won’t solve the problem.

Groups like Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union argue that moving the terror suspects to U.S. soil doesn’t end the policy of indefinite detention.

Republican lawmakers who want the detainees to stay at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, agree. They argue that extremists will use the detention without any filing of charges as a recruiting tool whether the terror suspects are in Cuba or at a U.S. prison some have dubbed “Gitmo North.”

A Defense Department team recently finished surveying seven sites in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas that could be the next address for some of the 112 detainees currently housed at Guantanamo Bay.

The White House is expected to release a report soon assessing the feasibility of using the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks and Midwest Joint Regional Corrections Facility at Leavenworth, Kansas; the Consolidated Naval Brig, in Hanahan, South Carolina; the Federal Correctional Complex, which includes the medium, maximum and supermax facilities in Florence, Colorado; and the Colorado State Penitentiary II in Canon City, Colorado, also known as the Centennial Correctional Facility.