Sen. Sam Brownback just returned from a recent inspection of Guantanamo and again pledged to block the use of Fort Leavenworth as a replacement prison for its alleged terrorist inmates.

    “I assure you that this is not simply a case of ‘not in my backyard,’” the Kansas Republican told a news conference Tuesday. “There is a world of difference between what Fort Leavenworth is designed for and what a detainee mission entails. And on Friday, I saw the difference with my own eyes.”  

   He said that housing the detainees involves “unique national security concerns” and “unique facilities and…arrangements.” 

   While Fort Leavenworth has a military brig, he said, “I've seen first-hand that it is not equipped to handle the detainee mission. It is not equipped, period.” 

   Brownback visited the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay along with Republican colleagues Mike Johanns of Nebraska and John Barrasso of Wyoming.

   Republicans have been waging a tough, fear-stoked campaign against President Obama’s plan to close the facility by January and possibly bring the prisoners stateside.

   Many Democrats also want to close Guantanamo. They see it as a moral black mark against the U.S. internationally because of the allegations of torture surrounding the treatment of prisoners.

  But Republicans have put them on the spot, and Democrats removed $80 million from a bill Tuesday that was to be spent on closing the prison.

   The Senate will vote this morning on a bipartisan measure to ensure that no money in an emergency war supplemental bill would be used to close Guantanamo.  

   Brownback ticked off other concerns about Fort Leavenworth as a potential relocation site: it’s largely a medium-security prison, the proximity to Kansas City, the availability of transportation routes, and the opposition from Middle Eastern allies who send military officers to study at the fort.

   “It is a quagmire, he said. “And I think the real thing for us to do here is to work together on this without creating artificial deadlines for closing Guantanamo Bay...with the primary issue being the security of the American people, not some public relations statement in Europe or other places around the world.”