Southern US Prison Potential Site for Guantanamo Inmates

by Carla Babb

9-2-2015

FILE - The entrance to Camp 5 and Camp 6 at the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay detention center, at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

(VOA) - PENTAGON— American defense officials are looking at a military prison facility in South Carolina as a possible site to house detainees now held by the U.S. at Guantanamo, Cuba.

U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig, Charleston, South Carolina.

A survey team has begun a two-day visit to the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.

Other facilities that could be used for any Guantanamo detainees transferred to the U.S. mainland also will be examined, according to the spokesman, Commander Gary Ross.

VOA reported earlier this month that a federal facility in Leavenworth, Kansas, already has been visited by a defense team. Other potential sites have not been listed.

"These site surveys are necessary," Ross said, "to determine potential locations for detaining a limited number of individuals in the United States, and to assess the costs associated with doing so.”

File -Prisoners at the US Guantanamo base.

Guantanamo closure 

President Barack Obama promised when he took office in January 2009 that he would close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which was established in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Although many of the Guantanamo detainees have been transferred to other countries in recent years, 116 prisoners are still held there.

Closing Guantanamo is one of the administration's top priorities during the president's remaining 16 months in office. However, even if most of the remaining prisoners are transferred to their home countries or other jurisdictions willing to accept them, U.S. defense officials estimate they will be unable to relocate about 50 detainees, so they are considering potential sites on U.S. territory.

FILE - A detainee's feet are seen shackled to the floor inside the Camp 6 high-security detention facility at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base April 27, 2010.

Controversy 

Bringing prisoners accused or suspected of terrorist links into the United States is a controversial issue domestically, and the administration's plans are opposed by a number of members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats. And Defense Secretary Ash Carter indicated this week that the military prison at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base may need to remain open.

Speaking to members of U.S. military services during a worldwide call-in event Tuesday, Carter said of the detainees: "If they're detained at Guantanamo Bay, fine. I would prefer to find a different place for them."