Rep. Vern Buchanan calls plan to close Guantanamo prison 'dangerous, irresponsible and illegal'

Rep. Vern Buchanan calls plan to close Guantanamo prison 'dangerous, irresponsible and illegal'

Following a proposal from President Barack Obama to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, called the plan dangerous, irresponsible and illegal.

The plan would transfer 30 to 60 detainees at Guantanamo to an unidentified high-security prison in the United States at an estimated cost of $290 million to $475 million.

The Pentagon listed 13 possible locations to bring Guantanamo detainees, including existing facilities in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas.

"Bringing terrorists - like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind responsible for planning the horrific deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans - onto U.S. soil and to outside countries can only be characterized as dangerous and irresponsible at best," Buchanan said in a release. "Just several weeks ago, the administration's own intelligence officials made clear ISIS will continue to target the United States in 2016. We cannot afford to release these hardened terrorists back onto the battlefield where they are able to rejoin terrorist networks and carry out horrific attacks."

Buchanan said the National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law by Obama, prohibits the transfer of Gitmo detainees onto U.S. soil. The NDAA also bans the use of federal funds to close the military prison in Cuba or to build any facility in the U.S. to house these enemy combatants, he said.

"The president is not above the law," Buchanan said. "As our nation fights ISIS and radical Islamic extremism around the world, the last thing we should do is close a facility used to house and interrogate individuals determined to kill Americans."

Buchanan is co-sponsoring a bill that would permanently prohibit the transfer of terrorists held at Guantanamo to the United States.

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Rep. Vern Buchanan calls plan to close Guantanamo prison 'dangerous, irresponsible and illegal' ."