News / Politics

GOP senators say Pentagon plan to close Guantanamo is illegal

Saturday, 16 January 2016 7:59 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 16 January 2016 8:00 AM ]

Demonstrators take part in a protest calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison on January 11, 2016 in front of the White House in Washington, DC.

Republicans in the US Congress have warned the Pentagon that its plan to shut down the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would break the law.

The Obama administration has transferred most Guantanamo detainees to other countries, but there is a relatively small number of prisoners who the White House says it would like to hold in a facility inside the United States for national security reasons.

Republican senators argued that President Barack Obama’s drive to establish a "Gitmo North" location within the United States would make the country less secure, according to The Hill.

"No matter how hard the president wishes it wasn’t the case, transferring dozens of dangerous terrorists to any domestic location is illegal," Republican Senators Cory Gardner, Pat Roberts and Tim Scott wrote in a letter to the Defense Department on Friday.

Transferring the Guantanamo detainees to US states will not lead to the "smallest change" in the extremist ideology or propaganda, they said.

The Pentagon is reportedly reviewing facilities in South Carolina, Kansas and Colorado as potential alternatives to the Guantanamo prison.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest refused Friday to confirm if the White House is considering the Pentagon's plan.

"Presumably the White House has some insight into the work that they are doing” he told reporters. “I don't know if they've emailed over a draft version or anything.”

The Pentagon announced Thursday that it had moved 10 Yemeni prisoners from Guantanamo to the Arabian nation of Oman.

The transfers brought the number of detainees remaining at the US military prison to 93.

As many as 775 detainees had been brought to the Guantanamo prison, which was set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Washington says the prisoners are terror suspects, but has not pressed charges against most of them in any court. Many detainees have been on hunger strike for months to draw attention to their deteriorating conditions.

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