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Bill would bar Gitmo detainees

Published February 4, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

A Colorado congressman doesn't want to see any Guantanamo Bay detainees relocated to the state - not even to the Supermax facility in Florence.

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of any funds to transfer enemy combatants being held at Guantanamo to the high-security Florence Federal Correctional Complex in Colorado.

"They are a security threat," Lamborn said. "We don't have any military detainees in our domestic prison system. This introduces a whole new type of person."

The bill would also bar the use of federal funds to "build, modify, or enhance" any facility at the Supermax prison to house enemy combatants.

"I think it would be a mistake to bring anyone from Guantanamo to the United States at all," said Lamborn.

He noted that the Supermax prison is close to maximum capacity with perhaps space for one more bed. "There are 245 hard-core terrorists in Guantanamo," said Lamborn. "When you put them in Supermax or a Bureau of Prisons facility, you're crowding out space to our domestic criminals. It would be one less secure space for a domestic criminal who would be relegated to a less-secure facility."

Lamborn is also concerned that mixing domestic criminals with suspected terrorists at Supermax may lead to unintended consequences.

"I don't want people espousing terrorism to be mingling with disgruntled American convicts," he said, adding there may be the issue of violating the Geneva conventions in doing so.

He couldn't say which human rights could be violated but said his office is researching the issue.

Lamborn said he doesn't know how much support he will get for his bill.

But he noted that representatives from Kansas and California are also considering similar bills because prisons in those two states have also been mentioned as possible lockups for the Guantanamo detainees.

Lamborn said he doesn't know where enemy combatants should go, if not to military or civilian prisons in the U.S. "That's up to the president," he said. "It was his idea to close Guantanamo."

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