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Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., leads members of the press on a tour of Fort Leavenworth Thursday afternoon to point out the problems he sees with housing enemy combatants in the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks. Photographs of the barracks are prohibited, prompting the tour to stop at the decommissioned prison.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — Students walked out the front doors of Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School and pondered the U.S. senator with television cameras pointed his way. With the children curious, Sen. Sam Brownback voiced concern.

The lawmaker stopped at the base school to illustrate his belief that Fort Leavenworth, 38 miles south of St. Joseph, would prove a bad fit for transferred detainees from the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

President-elect Barack Obama said he will close the detention facility at Guantanamo. Mr. Brownback said the Leavenworth fort lacks the design, the size, the mission, the location and the legal status to become the next stop for about 250 detainees.

In addition, he said if the U.S. government decides to put enemy combatants at the fort, it creates a risk for Leavenworth and base residents. His stop at the Eisenhower School was meant to reinforce the point.

“It would be a doable task for terrorists to quickly bust through that front gate and get in one of these schools,” he said.

During a base tour, the senator also stopped at the Command and General Staff College, whose alumni include Gens. Colin Powell and David Petraeus. With its $115 million Lewis and Clark Center opened just last year, the college was referred to repeatedly as the “intellectual center” of the U.S. Army.

“This is primarily an educational base. It is not primarily a military security base,” Mr. Brownback said. “Now the idea you can make it a major terrorist site ... I really think is wrong-headed, is foolhardy and will really be harmful to the primary mission.”

During the campaign, Mr. Obama called for the closure of the Guantanamo detention site. He voiced no opinion on legislation proposed last year by Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, about using the 500-bed Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks as a new residence for the detainees.

During a pre-tour press conference at Leavenworth’s community center, Mr. Brownback urged members of the Obama transition team to visit the Kansas base and see its unsuitability for detainees. He noted the near proximity of the Missouri River, a rail line and a metropolitan area as reasons to reject such an idea.

Further, the senator cited Defense Department directives that prohibit the confinement of military prisoners with enemy prisoners. He also said he would introduce a bill that rules out Fort Leavenworth as an alternative for Guantanamo detainees.

The mayors of Leavenworth and Lansing spoke at the press conference, as did Congresswoman-elect Lynn Jenkins. All, plus the chamber of commerce that serves the neighboring towns, oppose the detainee transfer.

“It would require a substantial increase in local, county, state and federal law enforcement officials to keep this area safe,” said Lisa Weakley, Leavenworth mayor.

Ms. Jenkins, who won the 2nd District House seat last month, said she did not want the local military base to become the “Guantanamo of the Midwest.”

Ken Newton can be reached

at kenn@npgco.com.