Congressman
Henry E. Brown, Jr.

Posted by: Brown Staff (May 07, 2009, 05:25 PM)

Posted in Homeland Security, Terrorist Detainees | View Full Posting

Posted by: Brown Staff (May 05, 2009, 11:33 AM)

House Democrats dealt the White House a setback yesterday and dropped President Obama’s request for $81 million to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp bowing to strong Republican criticism that the administration lacks a plan to relocate terror suspects detained there.

Mr. Obama requested the money as part a spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Democratic appropriators left it out of the bill circulated Monday among House Appropriations Committee staffers. Read more here.

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Posted by: Brown Staff (May 01, 2009, 12:15 PM)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this month that he "fully" expects every member of Congress to draft legislation prohibiting the transfer of military detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to  U.S. prisons. As I have drafted and submitted legislation stating just this, 15 of my House Republican colleagues and I also wrote a letter this month to Congressmen David Obey and Jerry Lewis, Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Appropriations respectively, expressing our opposition to the proposed funding in the FY09 War Supplemental to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and the relocation of those detainees to other facilities, including military installations in the United States.

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Posted by: Brown Staff (January 23, 2009, 06:00 PM)

If Not Gitmo, Then Where Should Terror Detainees Be Held?
By Sophia Yan
Time Magazine
Friday, Jan. 23, 2009

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1873669,00.html

With President Barack Obama having ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay military detention facility within a year, the U.S. faces the challenge of finding a new lockup for terrorism suspects currently behind bars, and those captured in future. Reports released by the Pentagon, the Center for American Progress, and Human Rights Watch, among others, have recommended several possible sites, most of them in military bases. But moving the Gitmo inmates almost anywhere on U.S. soil would likely set off a political firestorm.

Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha, a Democrat, is ready to see the captives moved to his own state, saying they would be "no more dangerous in my district than in Guantanamo." His constituents are far from convinced. Some see an economic benefit, because building a maximum-security prison would provide jobs. But others don't want terror suspects in their backyard. Diane Gramley, president of the 12,000-member American Family Association of Pennsylvania, has described Murtha's idea as "ludicrous." (See pictures from inside Guantanamo)

And Murtha is rare among legislators on Capitol Hill in his willingness to have the suspects incarcerated in his district. Most are vociferously opposed to the idea. Possible Gitmo replacement sites include:

1. U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Fort Leavenworth includes a 515-bed military prison, the only maximum-security prison in the Department of Defense. There are special confinement units in which inmates can be held for up to 23 hours a day. Other security protocols involve chaining prisoners' ankles before showering; when leaving their cells, inmates are always escorted by two or three staff members. The detention center presently holds 440 major offenders, most of them serving lengthy sentences. There are correctional and treatment programs on site.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, and Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican, have publicly opposed the idea of bringing Gitmo inmates to Leavenworth, which is in close proximity to its surrounding community, including an airport, farms, and hospitals. Brownback, terming such a transfer as "unwise and unsafe," has also introduced legislation calling for 90 days notice prior to transferring enemy combatants to another possible site, in Charleston, SC.

2. U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina
A medium security prison, the brig can hold up to 288 inmates — and has already been used to detain several terror suspects, including Jose Padilla and Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marril. The facility is in walking distance to the Port of Charleston, and within two miles of civilian residences. Local Congressman Henry Brown, a Republican, has said moving Gitmo inmates there would be a "a high-risk move...I am fearful for what they might bring with them, and I think it would put the local citizens at risk."

3. Camp Pendleton, San Diego, CA
As the Marines' largest training facility on the West Coast, the 125,000-acre Pendleton is not lacking for space. But the local Republican Congressman, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, has mounted a fierce campaign against transferring detainees there. "The facilities, as they stand right now, are not designed to house large populations of inmates — they're not prisons," says Hunter's spokesperson, Joe Kasper. Pendleton has more than 2,600 buildings and structures, and 7,300 housing units with 14,000 military family members.

Hunter introduced legislation on Thursday to prohibit the transfer of Gitmo inmates to Pendelton or to the nearby Miramar Air Station. "Redirecting these detainees to Camp Pendleton would present a serious threat to surrounding military installations and resources, as well as the community's civilian population," Hunter wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this month.

4. Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar, San Diego, CA
The 23-acre Miramar facility can hold up to 400 prisoners, and is currently staffed by over 200 personnel. It is roughly 50 miles from Miramar Air Station, home of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

Miramar was included in the bill introduced by Congressman Hunter to prohibit transferring Guantanamo detainees to existing facilities, or to construct new detention facilities in the same areas.

5. U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, Florence, CO
Called "Supermax" — and sometimes, the Alcatraz of the Rockies — this Federal prison 90 minutes outside Denver, "houses offenders requiring the tightest controls," according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Current inmates include convicted 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussawi, 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef, and self-styled 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski.

The 37-acre prison has 490 beds and at present holds 430 prisoners. Like Leavenworth, it has solitary confinement units enclosed by steel doors. Extreme security is enhanced by motion detectors, cameras, laser beams, attack dogs, 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors and 12-foot high razor wire fences throughout the facility.

6. Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City, NY
Located in lower Manhattan across the street from the Federal courthouse, the high-rise Metropolitan Correctional Center primarily detains pre-trial or holdover inmates. These prisoners are held under high security.

Posted in Berkeley County, Charleston County, Defense, Homeland Security, Terrorist Detainees | View Full Posting

Posted by: Brown Staff (January 22, 2009, 03:36 PM)

Today, President Obama signed an executive order beginning the process that will eventually close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (you can read the executive order here). Many in the Congress, the press, and the security community have raised the point that this closure brings with it more questions than it answers - most importantly, what will happen to the detainees?

With the Naval Brig at Charleston continually named one of the possible locations for the eventual transfer of these detainees, Congressman Brown today clearly stated that any future decision for housing these detainees must be made by Congress and not a Washington bureaucrat:

"...while this executive order officially closes the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, it is essential that these individuals, some of the most dangerous terrorists captured during the War on Terror, only be moved after a full evaluation of all available and appropriate locations...Congress should have the final say as to where these most dangerous detainees are held if they move to the US, not the Washington bureaucrats. After all, the members of Congress are the ones who will potentially be moving the most dangerous residents of Guantanamo into their own backyards."

You can read the rest of the Congressman's statement here.

Posted in Berkeley County, Charleston County, Defense, Homeland Security, Terrorist Detainees | View Full Posting

Posted by: Brown Staff (January 22, 2009, 09:43 AM)

The Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, with some critical infrastructure elements highlighted:

Posted in Berkeley County, Charleston County, Defense, Homeland Security, Terrorist Detainees | View Full Posting

Posted by: Brown Staff (January 03, 2009, 04:07 PM)

The Charleston Chamber of Commerce has come out in opposition to transfering terrorist detainees from Guantanamo to the Consolidated Navy Brig at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station.  Congressman Brown has introduced legislation to prevent this from occuring.

Charleston Chamber Letter on Gitmo Brig 122908

Posted in Berkeley County, Charleston County, Defense, Dorchester County, Homeland Security, Terrorist Detainees | View Full Posting

Posted by: Brown Staff (November 19, 2008, 05:14 PM)

Below is legislation introduced by Congressman Brown to prevent terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from being moved to the Naval Brig in Charleston. hr7272

Posted in Berkeley County, Charleston County, Defense, Homeland Security, Terrorist Detainees | View Full Posting