Defense Department Refuses to Let Michigan Officials Visit Guantanamo Bay Detention Center

WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department has denied a Michigan congressman's request to let state and local officials tour the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who is the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and is running for governor of the state, asked the Pentagon to take a look at the facility for terror detainees after a maximum security prison in Standish, Mich., was named as a potential site to transfer the prisoners.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Hoekstra the administration was seriously reviewing a number of options for relocating the detainees and a visit by state and local officials would be "premature."

Hoekstra, who opposes the move and authored legislation preventing terrorists from being housed in the United States, called into question the Obama administration's commitment to transparency.

"After a summer in which the American people made clear that they want more answers and information from their government, the administration has slammed the door in the face of everyone who wants to know more about the president's plan to transfer hundreds of terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States," Hoekstra said in a written statement.

"Decisions like this cannot be made in a vacuum and it is fundamentally wrong to ask that they be made based on partial information. For an administration that said it was going to be the most open and transparent in history, this shows the kind of closed-minded planning and decision making that has dogged the White House all summer," he continued.