Posted by
Patrick Henry on Sunday, May 24, 2009 12:29:39 PM
In spite of opposition from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, President
Barack Obama remains determined to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison
facility that houses 241 terrorist detainees. The debate has sparked a furor of
controversy at home, and there is a good reason why. It is a major concern for
America's national security.
Guantanamo Bay should not be closed, and here are some reasons why. First
and foremost it brings the war on terror directly to American soil, the very thing
the previous administration was trying to avoid. By jamming terrorists detained
in a military situation into civilian courts, Obama runs the risk that they may be
acquitted, since criminal investigation will have been conducted long after the
fect, evidence may be tainted and the offenses simply do not fit within the canons
of American jurisprudence. Should that happen in even a limited number of cases,
and should the acquitted detainees not be returned to their homeland for fear that
they may be ill-treated, and allied countries will not take them, what does that leave?
They will be freed to walk American streets and continue their jihad, only this time
they won't need forged passports to get here.
And what of the notion of housing Gitmo detainees in America's supermax
priosns? A really bad idea. Inmates, particularly African-American inmates, are
converting to Islam WHILE IN PRISON at a record pace. Nearly 6% of prison
inmates now embrace Islam, a much higher percentage than that of the rest of
America's populace. S0-called "Muslim prison champlains" are allowed to
preach and teach inmates unsupervised, and prison libraries are chock full of
jihadist literature. The marriage of Islam, sociopathology and resentment of
authoriy has produced an ultra=violent anti-American hybrid referred to by
many as "Prison Islam." Just last week four career criminals who converted to
Islam while in an American prison were arrested while trying to blow up two
New York synagogues and plotting to shoot down military planes with surface-
to-air missilies. This isn't some conspiracy theorist's pipdream. It's reality! And
so America's best answer is to mix hundreds more Muslim radicals into our prison
population so they can recruit and organize? Never mind the increased
risk to prison guards, wardens and their families. It's utter stupidity!
Even Obama admits that there is a group of detainnes who cannot be tried but
clearly represent a continuing threat to America. He also admits that, at this point,
he doesn't know what to do with them. He laments the "total mess" and blames
it on the Bush administration. The question is: was it a "mess" before he made
the amateurishly premature decision to close Gitmo without having a concrete
plan for how to do it? Now congress has denied him the money to do what he
wants UNTIL he comes up with a satisfactory plan. THAT is the mess! And
Obama is the one who made it.
He wants to release a large number of detainees and send them to "rehabilitation
programs" in Saudi and Yemen. Since Saudi and Yemen are the ones who spawned
these killers in the first place, how likely do you think it is that they will go to great
lengths to "rehabilitate" them? And define "rehabilitation," if you can, in their
eyes and in ours. Many of those formerly detained at Gitmo have already returned
to the battlefield intent on killing American soldiers. Some experts have estimated
the probability of recidivism as high as 65%. And so we're going to let them walk
because Guantanamo Bay offends European and American liberal sensibilties. It's
a clear case of politics first and national security last.
Leave Guantanamo Bay open! Re-name it "Camp Daisy" or something innocuous
if you will. Stop the torture. But don't bring more violent Islamic jihad to the shores
of America. It's irresponsible, it's mindless and it WILL backfire.