Board opposes transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Quantico

STAFFORD — The Stafford County Board of Supervisors met for a special session April 30 regarding the possible transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the Marine base at Quantico.

The board voted 6-1 to pass a resolution to formally oppose such action.

Supervisor Bob Woodson, D-Griffis-Widewater, cast the dissenting vote.

Woodson said that he does not believe President Obama would put citizens at risk. He said he believes the facility holding the prisoners, if they should come, would be secure.

Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer, R-Garrisonville, who proposed the resolution, said that the brig at Quantico is “500 feet away from the VRE…and 3-and-a-half miles from Interstate 95,” he said, noting that it would put the prisoners extremely close to residential areas in the county.

In January of this year, Obama ordered Guantanamo Bay prison camp, along with overseas CIA detention centers for terror suspects, to be closed. Approximately 250 detainees will need a place to go when the facility closes.

Obama’s presidential opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, said in an interview with CNN earlier this year that the decision to close the prison camp is a wise one.

But, McCain said he would have said where they prisoners were going to be taken, “because you’re going to run into a NIMBY [not in my backyard] problem here in the United States of America.”

During the board meeting, Supervisor Cord Sterling, R-Rock Hill, discussed the issue of transporting prisoners on Interstate 95.

“We need to be very vigilant” in transporting prisoners, said Sterling. The “traffic difficulties already on 95” would call for “increased security,” he said.

Supervisor Paul Milde, R-Aquia, said that some of the prisoners there could very well be set free in Stafford County. The prisoners are already in the best place possible and should not be transported to the United States, he said.

Sean Welch, a legislative representative from Virginia Congressman Rob Wittman’s office, said that Wittman opposes the detainees coming to the Quantico/Stafford area.

He is currently working on a bill with other legislators that would prevent detainees from coming to Virginia facilities, and additionally to prevent medical treatment from any military or veterans’ facility to the detainees, as well as to prevent detainees from entering the country.

“The bottom line,” said Welch, “is that [Wittman] doesn’t want them in Quantico, doesn’t want them in Virginia and doesn’t want them in the United States.”

Jim Lawrence is a contributing writer for the Stafford County Sun. Sun Managing Editor Tracy Bell contributed to this report. Reach them at info@staffordcountysun.com.