Bill Text: CA AJR5 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

California Assembly Joint Resolution 5 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Camp Pendleton: housing detainees of Guantanamo Bay.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-02-10 - From printer. [AJR5 Detail]

Download: California-2009-AJR5-Introduced.html

BILL NUMBER: AJR 5	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Harkey

                        FEBRUARY 6, 2009

   Relative to Guantanamo Bay detainees.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AJR 5, as introduced, Harkey. Camp Pendleton: housing detainees of
Guantanamo Bay.
   This measure would urge the Congress of the United States, with
respect to detainees of the United States Naval Station at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, not to redirect those detainees to or house them at the
Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, On January 22, 2009, President Barack Obama announced
plans to close the detention center at the United States Naval
Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (hereafter Guantanamo Bay) and signed
an order that begins the process of closing Guantanamo Bay; and
   WHEREAS, Although the order makes no specific mention of United
States Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California (hereafter Camp
Pendleton), or any other United States facility where detainees of
Guantanamo Bay may be rehoused, some reports place Camp Pendleton on
the short list of possible facilities; and
   WHEREAS, Guantanamo Bay houses some of the most hardened killers
and terrorists in the world, some of whom have already killed within
the detention center; and
   WHEREAS, Camp Pendleton houses approximately 14,000 family members
of personnel inside the base, is too busy training troops for war to
adequately deal with terrorism suspects, and is not equipped to
house the hardened terrorists and criminals who are currently housed
at Guantanamo Bay; and
   WHEREAS, Housing former detainees of Guantanamo Bay at Camp
Pendleton would present safety risks to residents in southern
California, along with the soldiers and civilians who live and work
on the base; and
   WHEREAS, The terrorist detainees also should not be relocated to
Camp Pendleton because it is within 12 miles of the San Onofre
Nuclear Generating Station, the only nuclear facility in Southern
California; and
   WHEREAS, United States Representatives Darrell Issa, Brian
Bilbray, and Duncan Hunter have implored Defense Secretary Robert
Gates to take Camp Pendleton off the list of United States facilities
where detainees of Guantanamo Bay may be rehoused, and have
introduced H.R. 633, which would prevent federal funds from being
used to transfer enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo Bay to the
Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar, California, or to the Camp
Pendleton Base Brig, or to construct facilities for those enemy
combatants at those locations; and
   WHEREAS, Secretary of Defense Gates has rejected the claim that
rehousing Guantanamo Bay detainees at Camp Pendleton would pose a
safety risk, and has said that he believes there are ways that those
detainees could be moved to facilities such as Camp Pendleton while
still safeguarding the community; and
   WHEREAS, Camp Pendleton should be removed from the list of
potential locations at which to rehouse detainees of Guantanamo Bay,
and those detainees should instead be housed in appropriate federal
prisons; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California
strongly urges the Congress of the United States, with respect to
detainees at Guantanamo Bay, not to redirect or house those detainees
at Camp Pendleton; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and the Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to each
Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the
United States.