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Monday, August 3rd, 2009
Pro-Troop Group Warns Obama: U.S. Based GITMO Unnecessary, Unsafe

Move America Forward

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:  DANNY GONZALEZ, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
danny@moveamericaforward.org / (714) 926-6189
August 3, 2009

Pro-Troop Group Warns Obama: U.S. Based GITMO Unnecessary, Unsafe
Group Toured Gitmo, Seeks to Keep Camps Open

SACRAMENTO – Move America Forward (MAF, www.MoveAmericaForward.org), the nation’s largest grassroots pro-troop organization, is disturbed about reports from multiple news sources yesterday, that Obama Administration officials have admitted they are working on plans and reviewing possible locations for relocating terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to an existing facility in the U.S.

Move America Forward takes issue with the fact that the Obama administration is now proposing to spend tax payer’s money to upgrade and secure a new site in the U.S. to house the detainees all in an effort to mirror the existing facility.  Plain and simple, Gitmo serves it’s purpose and works and there is no need to set up a similar facility in the U.S. for the purpose of putting politics over the safety of our country. 

In 2006, the group traveled to Guantanamo Bay to visit the base.  MAF reported back that Guantanamo Bay was the only appropriate facility to house and prosecute detainees, and that they found no signs of mistreatment. Detainees were in fact treated with as much or more respect than they deserved.

Shawn Callahan, Executive Director of MAF, said “We absolutely oppose any plan to house Gitmo detainees anywhere in the United States and furthermore contend that any move to do so would put American lives in jeopardy. It is clear that President Obama is more concerned with appeasing the liberal wing of his party and, based on polls, is out of step with the majority American’s.”

Move America Forward has been at the center of the Gitmo debate, held press conferences with Sen. Inhofe, appeared on National TV and produced advertisements for television to debate the issue.

Callahan said that, “Bringing the detainees to U.S. soil might award them rights under U.S. courts that the detainees do not deserve. Upgrading U.S. prisons with higher security and courtrooms in-house makes no sense when Guantanamo Bay already has those facilities.  And even more dangerous is the possibility that once in the U.S. prison system, that the terrorists could spread their radical views to other inmates or that the facilities could become a target for further terrorist attacks.”

For more information, or to schedule an interview with a Shawn Callahan or MAF Staffers who visited Guantanamo Bay in 2008, contact Danny Gonzalez at (714) 926-6189 or Danny@MoveAmericaForward.org