Local sheriffs oppose moving Guantanamo detainees to Colorado
By Keith Coffman
DENVER (Reuters) - About two-thirds of Colorado's sheriffs are expressing opposition to any plan by President Barack Obama to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to prisons in the state, saying such a move could imperil local security.
A letter to the White House that protested the possibility of moving foreign terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba was signed by 41 of the state's 64 sheriffs and released on Tuesday.
The Pentagon is expected to unveil a long-awaited plan this week detailing how it would close the facility despite fierce resistance in the Republican-led Congress.
The letter's author, Republican Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith, said transferring any Guantanamo detainees to Colorado would pose a risk to people in the state.
"Recent history has shown us repeated examples around the globe of coordinated, violent attacks against prisons holding radical Islamic militants," the sheriffs' letter stated. "We strongly protest actions that might well add our state to the list of locations where such deadly attacks have occurred."
All but two of the sheriffs in Colorado are elected. Most are Republicans.
Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo facility before leaving office in 2017. His administration is considering prisons in Colorado as possible locations to hold detainees transferred from Guantanamo.
The Pentagon's plan is expected to detail potential U.S. sites for the detainees including the Centennial Correctional Facility, a state prison in Canon City, Colorado, according to a U.S. official.
A Pentagon team has scouted facilities in Colorado that also included the federal penitentiary in Florence dubbed "Supermax," built to house the most dangerous inmates in the U.S. federal prison system. Its inmates include Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
In their letter, the sheriffs said moving detainees from Florence to federal court in Denver, about 100 miles (160 km) to the north, would strain law enforcement resources.
"The transportation of these detainees ... will create many safety and security threats to our communities," they wrote.
The U.S. Senate passed a sweeping defense policy bill on Tuesday that included provisions making it more difficult to close the Guantanamo prison.
Republican Colorado Senator Cory Gardner said the vote reflected the sentiment of the American people.
"These provisions send a clear message to the administration that any plan to move Guantanamo detainees to this country is unacceptable," Gardner said in a statement.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Will Dunham)
