By AP
STANDISH, MI – A federal team is visiting a maximum-security prison in Standish that could be used to hold terrorism suspects now detained at Guantanamo Bay.
Representatives of the Defense, Justice and Homeland Security departments on Thursday morning were touring the prison in the Lower Peninsula town 145 miles north of Detroit.
The Standish facility and the military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., are being considered to house the detainees if the prison in Cuba is closed by 2010, as ordered by President Barack Obama.
Guantanamo Bay now houses 229 suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters.
Some local residents favor bringing the detainees to Standish if necessary to keep the prison from closing. Others fear it would make the area a terrorist target.