Posted on 01/15/2009 6:00:03 AM PST by kellynla
Camp Pendleton is apparently on the list of potential new homes for Guantanamo Bay detainees if and when President-elect Barack Obama makes good on his campaign promise to close the terrorist detention center.
The Associated Press is reporting that Obama will issue an executive order during his first week in office. As soon as he signs it the new administration will have to figure out what to do with the 250 al Qaeda and Taliban combatants.
And three House members from San Diego put Defense Secretary Bob Gates on notice this week that they don’t want to see Pendleton as the new home for these folks.
“”This decision could seriously endanger the mission,’’ at Pendleton, wrote Reps. Darrell Issa, Duncan Hunter, and Brian Bilbray.
I talked with Issa’s chief of staff Dale Neugebauer last night who said the Vista congressman – who used to represent part of Orange County – believes these prisoners should be returned to the places they were captured. So if we picked them up in Afghanistan, they should go back there.
Issa believes, he said, that having those enemy combatants there would “detract from the Marines’ mission at a time when they are engaged in armed conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The letter also points out that there are 14,000 military family members at Camp Pendleton and that it wouldn’t be good for Marines serving overseas to be fearful for their families if the Guantanamo detainees were sent there.
There isn’t agreement among those who sent the letter about what to do with Guantanamo. Hunter, who is a freshman lawmaker taking over from his father, also Duncan Hunter, comes to Congress fresh from multiple tours in Iraq and he has been quoted as saying the detainee camp in Cuba should be maintained.
(Excerpt) Read more at totalbuzz.freedomblogging.com ...
“Use the South Side of Chicago.”
Maybe Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Barbara Streisand (sp?) DH Hugley, Kanye West, the Dixie Chicks, and other Hollywood Bush/Cheney bashers would love to take them into their homes.
i’m in agreement on all points.
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