US officials say the Pentagon’s long-awaited plan to shut down the detention centre at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay and transfer the remaining detainees to a facility in the US mainland calls for up to $475m in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180m per year in operating cost savings.
The plan, which was delivered to Congress on Tuesday morning, is the administration’s last-ditch effort to make good on President Barack Obama’s campaign vow to close Guantanamo and convince lawmakers to allow the Defence Department to move nearly 60 detainees to the US. The Pentagon has proposed transferring the remaining 91 detainees to their home countries or to US military or civilian prisons. But Congress is deeply opposed and expected to block the move.
Senior administration officials told that closing the prison is a national security imperative. “Implementing this plan will enhance our national security by denying terrorists a powerful propaganda symbol, strengthening relationships with key allies and counterterrorism partners, and reducing costs,” said Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook in a statement.
US officials say the plan considers 13 different locations in the US, including seven existing prison facilities in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas, as well as six other locations on current military bases. They say the plan doesn’t recommend a preferred site and the cost estimates are meant to provide a starting point for a conversation with Congress.
The seven facilities reviewed by a Pentagon assessment team last year were: the US Disciplinary Barracks and Midwest Joint Regional Corrections Facility at Leavenworth, Kansas; the Consolidated Naval Brig, Charleston, South Carolina; the Federal Correctional Complex, which includes the medium, maximum and supermax facilities in Florence, Colorado; and the Colorado State Penitentiary II in Canon City, Colorado, also known as the Centennial Correctional Facility.
According to the officials, the US facilities would cost between $265m and $305m to operate each year. The annual operating cost for Guantanamo is $445m, but the officials said the Cuba detention centre will need about $225m in repairs and construction costs if it continues to be used.
They said it will cost between $290m and $475m for construction at the various US sites, depending on the location.
Late last year, other US officials said that the assessments done by the Pentagon team suggested that the Centennial Correctional Facility in Colorado is a more suitable site to send detainees whom officials believe should never be released.
Members of Congress have been demanding the Guantanamo plan for months, and those representing South Carolina, Kansas and Colorado have voiced opposition to housing the detainees in their states.
The administration is currently prohibited by law from moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US.
The long-running dispute has taken on added intensity now because the White House has launched a final push to close to the prison before Obama leaves office. There are currently 91 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Of those, 35 are expected to be transferred out by this summer.
At its peak in 2003, Guantanamo held nearly 680 detainees, and there were about 245 when Obama took office.
