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GOP Reps Promise To Do Everything In Their Power To Block Gitmo Transfers To Colorado

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Jonah Bennett Contributor
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GOP Reps. Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman have dedicated themselves to fighting back against the Obama administration’s consideration of Colorado as an ideal location for locking up some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists.

Those terrorists are now located in Guantanamo Bay, but the Pentagon is scouting across the United States for ideal prisons to send detainees who are simply too threatening to release, The Hill reports.

The Pentagon has considered Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as well as the Naval Brig in Charleston, S.C. In both states, members of Congress have raised hell at the proposal. (RELATED: Senators: Bringing Gitmo Detainees To Kansas And South Carolina Is Preposterous)

Colorado is little different. The prisons under examination are the Colorado State Penitentiary by Canon City and the Federal Correctional Institute, which is based in Florence.

“The people of Colorado do not want the world’s worst terrorists housed in our own backyard, and we will not stand for this,” Lamborn said in a written statement, according to The Hill. “I will do everything in my power to resist these unlawful terrorist transfers from taking place.”

Coffman wrote on his Facebook page, “I’ll do everything I can to stop it. These hardened terrorists, who have perverted Islam into a political ideology, are irregular enemy combatants who should be housed at Guantanamo, and not in Colorado or in any other state.”

This all follows the Obama administration’s plan to shutter the facility. While 53 detainees have been cleared for security release, the other 61 are deemed too dangerous and so require indefinite detention. That’s where Colorado comes in, but Congress has already struck back with a provision in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act to further restrict transfers to several countries. The White House, however, has stated firmly that Obama will veto the legislation—and not just because of Gitmo restrictions.

Sen. John McCain, a Republican known for siding with Democrats on Guantanamo Bay, blamed the White House for not submitting a closure plan to Congress, so that members could at least consider the proposal. (RELATED: McCain Blames Obama Administration For Not Submitting Gitmo Closure Plan In Time)

Earlier in September, Sen. Cory Gardner and Rep. Scott Tipton rebuked the Pentagon for daring to look at sites in Colorado.

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