County Sheriffs of Colorado letter to Obama regarding GITMO prisoners coming to Colorado

 

Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Office

555 Main Street,PO Box 1460
Meeker, Colorado

For Emergencies Dial 9-1-1

Message from Sheriff Anthony Mazzola

County Sheriffs of Colorado 9008 N US Hwy. 85 Unit C Littleton CO. 80125 Telephone: 720-344-2762 Fax: 720-344-6500 Web: www.csoc.org November 9, 2015 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President: We, the undersigned Sheriffs from the State of Colorado, write in strong opposition to your proposed actions to transfer dangerous foreign enemy combatants held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military detention facility to civilian prisons in our state. As the top law enforcement officials in our counties, elected by our citizens and charged with maintaining public safety and security in our respective counties, we are concerned that utilizing current civilian prisons in our state would significantly – and unnecessarily – endanger our citizens. The prisons being reviewed are all high security prisons, indicating that officials responsible for the detainment of these individuals believe that the prisoners represent a significant security threat to the citizens of our state. We do not question the ability of Bureau of Prisons to detain these prisoners, but we recognize that there is a more significant public safety concern – the danger posed by sympathizers who would mount an attack on these facilities or commit other acts of terror in our state to draw further attention to their causes. We recently learned that the FBI has almost 1,000 active ISIS investigations taking place inside the borders of the United States. We believe it would be dangerously naïve not to recognize that a civilian prison with an untold number of enemy combatant inmates, located in our state, would provide a very tempting target for anyone wishing to either free these detainees or simply wishing to make a political statement. While civilian prisons were built to keep inmates in, they were not designed to deter or repel organized attacks from the outside. As sheriffs, we are tremendously concerned that our communities can and will be endangered if civilian prisons inside our state are utilized to hold enemy combatants from Guantanamo Bay. Recent history has shown us repeated examples around the globe of coordinated, violent attacks against prisons holding radical Islamic militants. We strongly protest actions that might well add our state to the list of locations where such deadly attacks have occurred. The locations that the Department of Defense recently scouted for proposed transfer of these detainees are in close proximity to densely-populated areas of Pueblo and Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs is home to the U.S. Air Force Academy, Peterson Air Force Base, Buckley Air Force Base, and Fort Carson. Pueblo is home to the U.S. Army's Chemical Weapons Depot. Further adding to our statewide concern is the reality that any detainees housed in our state will likely be accessing the federal court system. That will require transporting them to the federal district courts or federal court of appeals, located in Denver. The transportation of these detainees from Freemont County to the Denver metropolitan area will cross many counties and will create many safety and security threats to our communities that must be addressed by Colorado sheriffs. In the 1990s, we experienced the dangers and threats to our capital city, Denver, when two domestic terrorists, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, were tried there. Security during that trial was unprecedented. We can only imagine the disruptions and dangers throughout our state if enemy combatants from Guantanamo Bay were routinely transported from Canon City to the heart of our capital city of Denver. In Colorado, county sheriffs are responsible for enforcement of criminal law and keeping the peace throughout the state, not a state police agency. When individual sheriff’s offices are overwhelmed, we draw from our fellow sheriffs for assistance through mutual aid requests. Therefore, this matter concerns and affects each and every sheriff across the state Mr. President, we deplore you to reconsider your plans to redeploy enemy combatants from a secured military base in Cuba to civilian prisons in Colorado. We recognize the risk to our citizens from this ill-conceived plan is too high. We respectfully urge you to reconsider this plan and keep these terrorists safely far away from our nation’s shores and our great state. Most Respectfully, Sheriff James Beicker, Freemont County Sheriff Anthony Mazzola, Rio Blanco County Sheriff Bill Elder, El Paso County Sheriff Brett Powell, Logan County Sheriff Brett Schroetlin, Grand County Sheriff Bruce Hartman, Gilpin County Sheriff Chad Day, Yuma County Sheriff Dan Warwick, Saguache County Sheriff David Walcher, Arapahoe County Sheriff Dominic Mativa, Ouray County Sheriff Fred Hosselkus, Mineral County Sheriff Fred McKee, Delta County Sheriff Fred Wegener, Park County Sheriff Garrett Wiggins, Routt County Sheriff James Van Beek, Eagle County Sheriff James Casias, Las Animas County Sheriff Jeff Shrader, Jefferson County Sheriff Jerry Martin, Dolores County Sheriff John Minor, Summit County Sheriff Jon Stivers, Washington County Sheriff Justin Smith, Larimer County Sheriff KC Hume, Moffat County Sheriff Lou Vallario, Garfield County Sheriff Matt Lewis, Mesa County Sheriff Mike Ensminger, Teller County Sheriff Mike McIntosh, Adams County Sheriff Richard Albers, Clear Creek County Sheriff Rich Valdez, Archuleta County Sheriff Rick Besecker, Gunnison County Sheriff Rick Dunlap, Montrose County Sheriff Robert Jackson, Alamosa County Sheriff Rod Fenske, Lake County Sheriff Ron Bruce, Hinsdale County Sheriff Sam Zordel, Prowers County Sheriff Shayne Heap, Elbert County Sheriff Steve Nowlin, Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Reams, Weld County Sheriff Tom Hanna, Sedgwick County Sheriff Tom Ridnour, Kit Carson County Sheriff Tony Spurlock, Douglas County Cc: Senator Michael Bennet Senator Cory Gardner Representative Dianna DeGette Representative Jared Polis Representative Scott Tipton Representative Ken Buck Representative Doug Lamborn Representative Mike Coffman Representative Ed Perlmutter