President Obama greets U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet at last week’s State of the Union address.
CNN reporter Jake Tapper reports that the Obama administration is actively pursing a transfer of Gitmo prisoners to the U.S., “obviously exploring some in Colorado,” in spite of the law he just signed forbidding him to do such a thing.
“Colorado is looking like the place the Pentagon wants to send them,” confirmed Barbara Starr, Pentagon reporter for CNN.
Starr said the Pentagon will try and empty the Guantanamo Bay holding cells by releasing a few dozen more prisoners overseas to whichever countries will have them, leaving the “really hard core” to move into Colorado.
At last count, there were about 100 prisoners in Gitmo, about 17 of them considered high-level detainees.
U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner was on Fox News this week warning against such a plan, and threatened that if Obama moved forward with the Colorado relocation, he would face legal action.
“The people of Colorado have rejected this, they don’t want it, the sheriffs have said no, the president should abide by the law,” Gardner said. “This isn’t going to change the hearts and minds of al Qaeda. They’re not going to all of a sudden give up their fight against Western values and Western civilization because Guantanamo Bay is closed.”
If Obama decides to move the prisoners to state prison that we built, but never opened, it would cost millions to retrofit it to hold the terrorists, and perhaps make the state a proxy for terrorists carrying out future attacks, Gardner said.
So how exactly will Obama skirt the law? Our money is on an executive order.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has had little to say, having supported the closing of Gitmo and resulting transfer to the U.S., before he was up for reelection.
“Senator Bennet has voted one way and talked another when it comes to President Obama’s dangerous plan to transfer terrorist detainees to the homeland. Now that the President is moving forward with his plan and Colorado is on the short list to accept the ‘worst of the worst’ detainees, Senator Bennet owes voters a straight answer about where he stands on this critical issue facing his state,” said Amelia Chassé, America Rising PAC press secretary.
That hug Obama gave Bennet at the State of the Union speech last week is starting to look more a mafia deal, making Bennet the Godfather of Gitmo.
