Expand Gitmo, Gardner urges

Back froma tour, the Senator says the facility is humane and remains useful.

washington » Rather than close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, U. S. Sen. Cory Gardner said Tuesday that he’d like to see its mission expanded to include fighters taken prisoner in the battle against the Islamic State.

The stance represents a doubling-down of Gardner’s opposition to recent White House efforts to close the detention facility in Cuba, and it follows a tour the Colorado Republican said he took of the U. S. military base Monday.

“Guantanamo Bay is a facility that I think should be utilized by the United States for detainees, say, out of Syria,” Gardner said. “There’s a real question of what the United States could do if we detain somebody out of Syria right now.”

As part of the visit, Gardner said he saw where the detainees were imprisoned— although he did not speak with them. He described the overall conditions as humane.

“This looks like a prison facility that you would find in Colorado,” he said.

Joining Gardner on his first trip to Guantanamo Bay were two other Republican senators: Jerry Moran of Kansas and Steve Daines of Montana.

They made their one- day visit about a week after President Barack Obama reiterated his desire to close the facility, which houses about 90 detainees and has — in the words of Obama — undermined U. S. standing in the world.

“It’s counterproductive to our fight against terrorists, because they use it as propaganda in their efforts to recruit,” Obama said. “It drains military resources, with nearly $ 450million spent last year alone to keep it running, and more than $ 200 million in additional costs needed to keep it open going forward for less than 100 detainees.”

Colorado has been mentioned as one state that could house detainees if they were transferred to the U. S., a possibility that has drawn backlash from lawmakers such as Gardner.

Citing opposition fromlocal law enforcement, Gardner said hewas concerned about the security risk, and he argued that if the detainees were moved stateside they no longer would provide intelligence to the military.

Asked about criticism of Guantanamo Bay, and the possibility the detainees could be held indefinitely, Gardner said it was being done under the “law of war.”

“These guys are bad people,” he said. “They didn’t get there because they were mistakenly found in the wrong neighborhood.”