Pentagon Tours Pendleton In Plan To Move Prisoners

Posted: Jan 27, 2009 05:39 PM PST

Updated: Jan 27, 2009 05:46 PM PST

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Pentagon Tours Pendleton In Plan To Move Prisoners
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It appears a controversial plan may be in the works to transfer prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to military bases in San Diego County.

Marine commanders told Congressman Duncan Hunter defense officials toured the Pendleton Jail on Dec. 11. Hunter, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, has introduced a bill barring the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to Camp Pendleton, or the brig at Miramar.

Hunter says moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to Camp Pendleton's brig would be a huge distraction to servicemen and servicewomen who are being trained to fight terrorism, and is an insult to the families they've left behind.

"There is no transparency, nobody's talking to Congress from the administration, nobody's talking to the DoD saying hey guys, here's what we have planned out, here's what we're looking at. No one's talking to us yet," Hunter said.

Retired Army Colonel David Epstein says Camp Pendleton is definitely not a place for those who have carried out aggressive acts against America, and says defense department officials eyeing the brig at Miramar should be looking elsewhere as well.

"They should be placed in an isolated area where security can be the main concentration of the people assigned to take care of them, and where demonstrations - if they take place - won't disrupt the life of the people living around the area," Epstein said.

One of the other concerns about housing the detainees in San Diego County is that it could make the area a much bigger target for terrorists crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

"That could happen, but along with everything else, why do we want to add this possibility to the problem," he said.

Other sites under consideration besides Camp Pendleton and Miramar are Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City and the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado.

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