WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today introduced the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility Safe Closure Act of 2009 which would require President Obama to provide Congress 90 days notice as well as provide a study that will answer specific questions relating to security, logistics and alternatives before taking any action to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay or transferring enemy combatants to other facilities.

"We cannot afford to make snap decisions about detainee policy, and the American people should be able to judge any policy changes for themselves," Brownback stated. "This legislation would require an open and comprehensive review of the factors related to moving the Guantanamo detainees."

The bill requires the President to give Congress 90 days notice before taking any action to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay or transferring enemy combatants to other facilities. It also requires that any notification shall include a feasibility study. The study must include specifics as to: space available; comingling; security personnel requirements; upgrade costs of current facilities compared to building a new facility; proximity to private land, civilian populations, and other military activities or base missions; an assessment of on-site facilities such as medical care, firefighters, and space for legal proceedings; and alternative sites such as facilities recently closed through BRAC or international options.

Brownback continued, "I am confident that such a review would reveal that Fort Leavenworth is not an appropriate location for housing terrorist detainees. Housing detainees at Fort Leavenworth is unwise and unsafe. The base is not equipped to handle the transfer of Guantanamo detainees and there is still no answer on how to avoid comingling prisoners and detainees, which is against the law."

Brownback has several times toured the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth and, in consultation with officials at the Defense Department, concluded Fort Leavenworth is not equipped to handle those currently held at Guantanamo Bay. Last week, Brownback again invited then President-Elect Obama to join him for a tour of Fort Leavenworth to see first hand why it is not an acceptable option.

Brownback has repeatedly stated that Fort Leavenworth is not an appropriate location to house enemy combatants and has suggested that if the holding facility at Guantanamo Bay is closed, a new facility should be built, designed specifically to handle detainees. He has also expressed that Fort Leavenworth is not a suitable location for enemy combatants because the disciplinary barracks are primarily a medium security facility; the base is primarily focused in training officers at the Command General Staff College; the proximity of the base to a community airport, farms and the surrounding community; and the lack of medical facilities on site, which would require transporting combatants through town to be treated in community hospitals.