By GottaLaff
One proposal would be to establish a jail and court complex either at the U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., or at a maximum-security facility in Standish, MichIt seems like just a couple of days ago
I posted about President Obama's latest plan to close Gitmo and move the detainees to U.S. supermax prisons. Oh wait. It was.
All those evildoers running free, all those prison guards smiling fondly and waving bye-bye as they watch their little fledglings take wing, climbing over back yard fences and teaching villain games to kidlets in wading pools all over Kansas. Kinda brings a tear to the eye, doesn't it?
Hm? What's that? That would never happen? Well,
I know that, and
you know that, but apparently some
Rushpublic senators don't:If it takes shutting down the Senate to block the Obama administration from moving prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to U.S. soil, that’s exactly what some Republican senators plan to do. Following several reports Aug. 3 that the White House was debating two distinct proposals for dealing with more than 250 prisoners still housed at the detention facility at the U.S. military base in Cuba, senators from various parts of the country pledged to fight any attempt to move the terrorism suspects to the United States, severely complicating President Obama’s plan to close the prison by January. [...]
“You can always shut down the Senate by simply putting the Senate in a quorum call and objecting to any unanimous consent to go back to business,” Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said Tuesday. [...]
The Kansas Republicans held multiple news conferences to drive home the idea that they would do everything they could to prevent detainees from being transferred to their state under any circumstances.
Carl Levin responded that, among other things, "it would be an important economic boost.”
Republican senators also oppose the other alternative: trying Guantanamo prisoners in East Coast federal civilian courts. They argue that any process not fully under the military’s jurisdiction could open a Pandora’s box of legal issues. “Under military law, you can hold someone off the battlefield indefinitely if they present a danger. Under domestic criminal law, you need to try someone or let them go,” said Armed Services member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a military lawyer who is working with the administration to overhaul the military commissions process in the context of the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill (HR 2647).
Indefinite detention. Don't even start me. Instead, go here.
Durbin has often argued that terrorism suspects are held in U.S. prisons now, with no adverse consequences. He has also acknowledged the effectiveness of the GOP tactic of offering Guantanamo amendments in a way that pressures Senate Democrats to go along.
Why are these little Rushpbulic men and women so terrified of everything? Why do they cower so? Don't they have any faith in America's own supermax prisons and/or legal system? That would be the same legal system that convicted known "worst of the worst" terrorists and imprisoned them in supermax prisons that have exemplary reputations:
Brownback has gone into full Chicken Little mode, warning anyone who will listen that Gitmo should not be emptied and closed after all because it's too dangerous to have prisoners at Ft. Leavenworth. [...]
They aren't even the "worst of the worst," a grossly unfair label that men such as former Attys. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales and John Ashcroft placed on them despite strong evidence to the contrary.
A great many terrorists have been successfully prosecuted and sentenced under federal criminal law -- both before and after Sept. 11, 2001. The roster of current maximum-security federal inmates reads like a Who's Who of Terrorism: Zacarias Moussaoui, Richard Reid, Jose Padilla, Ramzi Yousef, Ahmed Ressam (not to mention home-grown lovelies such as Terry Nichols and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber).
The prisoners incarcerated in Kansas, before or after trial, would be part of a system that is as safe as the world has ever known. I have toured the supermax facility, and I defy anyone who also has done so to suggest that it, or a new, similar prison, could not safely house the prisoners until they die, are transferred elsewhere or are released. [...]
We aren't talking about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed or Ramzi Binalshibh, remember, we are talking mostly about men who are used to being led, not to leading or planning.
If Gitmo detainees are transferred to Kansas, it will not become a battlefield for terrorists any more than Colorado has become a scene of carnage in the years since terror-convicts have been sent to the federal "supermax" facility there.
All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.
If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.
If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.
Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.
More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.
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