A story on NPR’s Morning Edition today held an interesting nugget of information on Colorado’s possible role in how a President Barack Obama would respond to the growing humanitarian and legal crisis at the controversial U.S. detention camp on Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The story examines the positions of Sen. Obama and his Republican presidential rival Sen. John McCain on the continued detention of an estimated 270 terrorist suspects following the June 12 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Boumediene vs. Bush that the captives were entitled to Constitutional protections.
NPR reporter Jackie Northam off-handedly states that closing Guantánamo and moving the detainees stateside may be a consideration in an Obama administration:
Obama has said one choice is to move the terror suspects to a civilian prison on the mainland, such as the Supermax in Florence, Colorado, where several high profile convicted terrorists are held.
Perhaps the presumptive Democratic nominee and his advisers should consider reading Erin Rosa’s award-winning Inside Supermax series on staffing woes, federal budget cuts and lingering environmental threats in Colorado’s highest security federal lock-up.
Is Obama simply trading an off-shore military gulag for an understaffed, underfunded prison especially ill-equipped to handle untried and unconvicted "enemy combatants" — many of whom have been cleared for release but the military cannot find willing host countries in which to re-settle them?
Listen to Candidates diverge on next steps for Guantánamo at NPR.org.