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Say it ain’t so that President Obama will close Gitmo and move most of its residents to a new constructed prison located at California’s Camp Pendelton Marine Base.

The U.S. military has prepared a list of U.S. military bases that could be used to house as many as 250 detainees currently being held at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, military officials tell ABCNews.com.

The list — which includes Camp Pendleton in California, Fort Leavenworth in Kansas; the Marine Air Station in Miramar, California; and the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in South Carolina — has been circulated in a classified brief to members of Congress and was prepared by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to order that the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility be closed on his first day in office, officials say. Officials say it would take at least a year to prepare a new prison and transfer the detainees.

The preliminary list was based on cost, logistic, and security concerns, but the Department of Defense is expected to present a more comprehensive recommendation based on a variety of factors, according a military official.

Camp Pendleton was determined to be the least expensive option and officials say its vast 125,000 acre size would allow for a new prison to be built in an isolated and secure area. 

Camp Pendleton has a daytime population of 60,000, according to its website, including military personnel, their families and civilian employees.

Three San Diego county Congressmen have already voiced opposition to sending the terror detainees to Camp Pendleton.

Ed Morrissey knowing the geography of Camp Pendelton ridicules the notion of moving GITMO there as a San Onofre based terrorist prison becomes a prime terrorist target. You know the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant that is nearby, the Interstate Freeway that runs down to Mexico and the upscale neighborhoods in Oceanside and North San Diego county which would be vulnerable to terrorist hostage and attack – so they can free their detained buddies.

The President-Elect will likely issue an Executive Order on his first day in office closing GITMO. And, it may be up to a year before the Cuban prison is actually closed.

Camp Pendleton would be an unwise choice.

The letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates opposing Camp Pendelton as a terrorist prison from Represenatives Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Brian Bilbray (R-CA) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) is here.

What a shame.

Our impeccably placed source says, “Just before Thanksgiving, Cindy McCain (above) started talks with producers to appear as a dancer on the show. She wanted to do it very badly.” But this week, Sen. McCain “put the kibosh on it.” Reps for the show and McCain didn’t return calls.

Why allow your wife to step on your press? Right, Senator?

But, you can no longer control Sarah Palin, now can you?

Jack Shafer has it just about right.

So having won the election without wooing the press, what is Obama’s new press strategy?

Courtship! On Tuesday night, Obama dined at George F. Will’s house with name-brand conservatives Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, William Kristol, Paul Gigot, Peggy Noonan, Michael Barone, and Larry Kudlow. The liberal commentariat got their audience the next day, when Obama met with Eugene Robinson, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, E.J. Dionne, and others at his transition headquarters. As I write, he’s touring the Washington Post, where he was interviewed by the paper’s editorial board and its White House team.

The new romance goes only so far. He’s still avoided the “traditional” pre-inauguration interview with the New York Times, as Politico‘s Michael Calderone reported yesterday. Calderone catalogs the four substantive interviews Obama has given the Times over the last 18 months or so and notes the welter of miniature press conferences Obama has given to make transition announcements. What seems to irritate the Times the most is the president-elect’s dismissal of the order of things, which mandates a sit-down session with reporters.

Perhaps the Times should count its blessings. As of late, when Obama does speak, as he did on Dec. 7 on Meet the Press, Dec. 28 on 60 Minutes, and Jan. 11 on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, he tends not to say much. The closest Obama came to giving Stephanopoulos any news was when he answered a question about investigating torture and warrantless wiretapping under the Bush administration. Obama said, “We have not made final decisions.”

Yet, the MSM press was clearly accomodating to Obama during the Presidential campaign and never pressed him to answer any hard policy questions. They have continued the policy during the transition.

Obama is lately hailed as being smart and shrewd to preemptively defang the media – both left and right.

But, Obama becomes President next week and will finally have to make some decisions and be held accountable. Decisions that will likely be criticised in the written and spoken word.

The press war is coming.

Related:

The Coming Obama-Press War

Meet the Press

The dynamic LEFT duo of Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann are back anchoring Presidential politics for MSNBC. As you remember, they were removed last summer after criticism of media bias.

Within a couple minutes of President Bush’s farewell speech, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann asked, “Am I wrong that the only thing missing tonight was another ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner?”

Chris Matthews, shortly after, said that Bush “got to be president because of his father.”

Both MSNBC stars took heat from conservative critics during the campaign for their analysis of news events — such as election nights or conventions. Toward the end of the campaign, MSNBC removed the Olbermann-Matthews duo from anchoring due to such criticism and staff tension (both on camera and off). 

Looking at the latest television ratings, MSNBC will not be doing themselves any favors by unleashing these two and Rachel Maddow.

But, third place in the news ratings is not all that bad, now is it?