Kansas AG: Pentagon spent $26K looking for Gitmo alternatives

Kansas’s attorney general is questioning why the Pentagon spent almost $26,000 surveying U.S. sites as alternatives to the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba given a federal law that bans money from being spent on prisoner transfers.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt released a one-page document on Thursday that he obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. It tallies the money the Pentagon spent to survey three possible alternatives to Guantánamo should the detention center close.

“As time runs out for the Obama administration to make good on its promise to close Guantanamo, this document raises new concerns for those who object to bringing detainees to the U.S. mainland,” Schmidt said in a written statement.

According to the document, the Pentagon spent $25,909.53 to survey Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C.; and the federal prison in Florence, Colo.

The total includes airfare, per diem and incidentals for each of the three visits.

In addition to releasing the document, Schmidt sent a letter to the Kansas congressional delegation urging it to press the Pentagon for an explanation of why it spent the money.

“The admission raises the concern that the Department of Defense violated the law by knowingly expending these funds while federal law enacted by Congress expressly prohibited the agency from doing so,” he wrote. “I encourage you to use this information to insist on an explanation from the Department of Defense as to how it justifies these expenditures in light of the prohibitions enacted by Congress.”

Under defense policy and spending bills, the Pentagon is banned from using funds to “transfer, release or assist in the transfer or release” of Guantánamo detainees to the United States.

The provision has effectively prevented President Obama from fulfilling his promise to close the facility, as his plan hinges on transferring detainees deemed too dangerous to release to a facility in the United States.

In July, Schmidt sued the Pentagon for documents related to the search for an alternative location to house Gitmo detainees, suggesting his FOIA request was being delayed for political reasons.

The Pentagon told Schmidt it would not be able to fulfill his request until Nov. 15, according to the lawsuit. Schmidt alleged the Pentagon was waiting until after the Nov. 8 election to release the information.

In his Thursday letter, Schmidt said the document he received this week was not all the information he wanted.

“The remainder of our lawsuit, which seeks more-detailed information from the federal agencies, remains pending,” he said, “and we intend to press ahead.”