Terrorists do not belong on American soil.
You would think that would be a non-controversial statement. We are at war, and the terrorists want nothing more than to see this country destroyed. As a nation, we have gone to great lengths to keep terrorists from attacking us again.
But now President Obama wants bring the terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay to the United States.
Current reports suggest that the Thomson Correctional Center in President Obama’s home state of Illinois will be purchased by the Obama administration to house prisoners currently detained at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama administration officials even go so far as to boast about the job creation opportunities in such a move, as if preserving national security were little more than a work program.
This is wrongheaded. It demonstrates that President Obama fails to appreciate the gravity of the situation.
In the first place, these people were not arrested; they were captured on the field of battle. They did not commit crimes; they committed acts of war. For decades, we have relied on the military and the military courts to deal with this kind of threat, but now President Obama seems intent on bringing them into the American criminal justice system, much like he’s doing with Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the architect of 9/11 who is scheduled to go to trial in New York City.
Left-wing pundits scoff at the claim that this is somehow a threat to our national security, since the Thomson Correctional Center could be transformed into a facility just as secure as Guantanamo Bay if we sink hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into it. They miss the point entirely. The problem isn’t that the prison system will let the terrorists escape; it’s that a judge, applying the precedents of liberal jurisprudence, might very well be persuaded to let one of them go.
Why would the President subject the nation to this?
Fortunately, Congress has the power of the purse, and we can vote to deny him the resources to take this action, just as we denied him the funding necessary to close Guantanamo Bay. We are at war. This terrible decision is a profoundly unserious way to deal with a very serious threat.
Then STOP him!
Countries commit acts of war. Terrorists commit crimes. By treating these guys as criminals we demean them, and we follow our 200+ years of legal tradition. I personally am not afraid, and I wish more Americans would stop being so scared of these people; it just empowers them. I am surprised anybody that lived through the cold war cannot see that this situation is not one of the major challenges we have faced as a nation, and is certainly no reason to start changing the way we do business. Lets deal with these criminal losers and move on.
By treating these guys as criminals we GIVE THEM EXACTLY THE STAGE AND OPPORTUNITY THEY DESIRE TO PROPAGATE MORE TERRORISM ON OUR OWN SOIL!!!! I, personally, am not afraid of keeping them where they are (GITMO). I wish more Americans would understand that this proposal just empowers these WAR CRIMINALS and it WILL CHANGE the WAY WE DO BUSINESS!!! Please deny OBAMA the funding and STOP THIS ACTION!
Gitmo is the best advertising campaign AQ could dream of. This is not rocket science. If you are afraid of what these losers have to say on the stand, I have to wonder if you really believe we are right. I do. I am unafraid of what Ted Bundy, or Terrorists, or any other murderer have to say on the stand.
What is the logic in making another prison into a Gitmo. I think the only reason is the amount of money he can give to his home state and all those people that will make millions.
Sounds tough all right. But no one in the party is stepping up to lead. It’s like all of you have accepted the fact that he’s going to get his way on everything and are waiting until the balance of power tips the other way, That’s not going to happen. Never have we had such blatent, arrogant, liberal, lying people with as much power as we have today. The voters bought it all–lock, stock and barrel, to borrow a cliche’.
Someone’s got to get a set and stand up and lead.
Mike see comment 4. Gitmo’s recruiting strength for AQ should probably be measured in the hundreds of billions given how much we have to spend in response to each recruit. Illinois being pork is probable, but that is less than what we spend in Iraq and Afghanistan on any given day. The important part is to close gitmo and to treat these people under our laws as opposed to acting like scared school-girls and giving AQ more fodder to gain new recruits by convincing people we don’t follow our own rhetoric about the rule of law.
Pete: No one is afraid of what these murderers have to say on the stand. Our laws protecting our citizen criminals allows them to be provided with all information relevent to the case in which they are involved. You’re missing the whole point. If they are allowed to have that information (at our expense), they and their lawyers (also at our expense)are allowed to present it at the trial or pass it along to anyone who they say has relevence. This includes all military strategies and intellegence gathering methods (informant names, interrogation techniques, misinformation, etc.) Quite a source of information for terrorist organizations, don’t you think? Historically, these people are combatants and handled by military tribunals and they are not allowed the same rights as the American criminals because of their attacks on America and American holdings. This method should continue. I don’t agree with the reported physical torture as an interrogation method, but intimidation, embarassment and imprisonment are quite a bit less severe than their method of beating the hell out of our people and then beheading them.
These jokers aren’t terrorists, they are patsy suckers which allows the true terrorists to send Americans off to war to die… As nothing more than a distraction to keep idiotic Americans from looking at who is and was actually responsible for 9/11. All the while the U.N. continually erodes American freedoms. This whole process is just a disgusting cover-up which is costing life, liberty, and certainly… happiness. DO THE RESEARCH! Open your eyes and get out of America, she’s a sinking ship and it’s all been planned by the Illuminati.
I agree that these people do not have the right to be treated as common criminals. They are war criminals and should be treated as such. As was mentioned before, someone needs to stand up and take the lead in this fight. GITMO is where they belong and should be tried by military tribunals!! Where are the people with the guts to start the ball rolling on this?? Will you take the lead Senator Bennett?? These war criminals do NOT belong in our federal prisons!!
I have a big question. Why the president cares so much about these criminals? He has enough room in the white house for them, just an idea!!!! They belong out of the U. S. A.
I agree that these people are war criminals, not common criminals. The basic problem, as I see it, is that we have a president in office, who has absolutely no military experience.