Monday, May 18th, 2009...6:39 am
We Can Even Call it “Maximum Security”
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I’ve been hearing all of the complaints about moving prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the mainland. I understand the frustration, because by closing Guantanamo, the only other option is giving them plane tickets to St. Louis.
What the federal government needs is a system of buildings all over the country. These buildings would have thick walls with razor wire on top and guards who are paid good money to keep dangerous people in these buildings. Could you imagine that? I mean, we could not only keep people from Guantanamo there, but domestic terrorists, bank robbers, major drug dealers and all sorts of felons. We could keep dangerous people out of our communities. It’s too bad no one has had the foresight to put such a plan in place.
18 Comments
May 18th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Well, if you split up the Gitmo detainees and sent them to maximum security prisons around the country, what could happen? If they escape they’d fit in most prison communities like a sore thumb. In fact, the biggest danger would be to the Gitmo detainees themselves, who would probably be sharing the ‘bottom of the food chain’ designation with child molesters.
I’d also only point out that some weeks ago the town of Hardin, Montana, which features a recently closed prison and the attendant 25% unemployment rate that comes when the town’s major employer is shuttered, volunteered to accept all the Gitmo detainees if the government would reopen their prison. Why they don’t just accept the offer is beyond me.
May 18th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Islamicists in Florence?
You think Abu Graib and Lynndie English were bad? Pity poor Ali when some big guy named Bruce wins him playing a game of cards and he becomes Allie.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Really? I guess liberals would would support prison for terrorists, just not in Tucson:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/05/18/20090518PrisonOpp18-ON.html
May 18th, 2009 at 9:55 am
I support reopening Alcatraz.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:14 am
You captured my exact thoughts on the matter, Ted. The other day some Rep from Kansas (Tiahrt I think) was on TV caterwauling about ZOMG TERRORISTZ IN OUR BACKYARDS!! He was talking about terror suspects being transferred to Leavenworth. Leavenworth! Are there some lapses in these uber-maximum security federal penitentiaries that the American public needs to made aware of? When’s the last time someone escaped from Leavenworth? Let alone someone from thousands of miles away who is probably completely unfamiliar with Kansas.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I sort of like the idea into breaking them up into ones and twos and parcelling them out to maximum security prisons around the country.
And as for the hysteria, I’m not sure why any given prison community should be more worried about these guys than the ordinary murderers, rapists and armed robbers that are in there already. As I and another poster pointed out, if they did escape they’d be a lot less effective at hiding out in America than anyone else and would almost certainly be recaptured faster and easier than most prison escapees are.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Heck, if they escape from Gitmo they are probably at least a little closer to freedom than they are here, at least if they made it through the fence they’d have a fighting chance to convince the Castro brothers not to send them to America.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I read the link posted by “American Security First,” which was more than he did, apparently. The County’s concerns stem from planning and land-use issues rather than the half-thought out “terrorists on our shores!” mantra adopted by ASF and every other loyal Republican who wants an argument. In other words, it is an entirely different set of issues and has nothing to do with the nature of potential inmates.
The truth is, our federal prisons already house many dangerous people, including terrorists. Are we really less safe because the Unabomber and Omar Abdel-Rahaman stew in federal prisons rather than some island somewhere?
Partisan hacks like Jon Kyl and Peter King, in their quest to argue against anything the President does, imply that the Guantanamo inmates will simply be set free and given bus tickets to Your Community. This is not only stupid, but dishonest, since they all know that it’s bullshit. Unfortunately, the mainstream media, in its usual beltway stupidity, has accepted this chest-thumping as a legitimate expression of public policy concern rather than the crass and phony political ploy it is.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Here’s the problem: very few murderers and rapists have people outside working very hard to attack the prison to rescue them (or go down in blaze of glory trying to do so).
The highest-ranking Gitmo terrorists are prime “rescue” candidates.
How many US prisons are ready to repell suicide attacks? It’s not exactly in the design plans. . .
May 19th, 2009 at 6:04 am
Un-Ted has seen too many movies.
May 19th, 2009 at 8:50 am
“How many US prisons are ready to repell suicide attacks? It’s not exactly in the design plans. . ”
Uh…all of them? Just how easy do you think it is to walk into a maximum security prison with a bunch of explosives strapped to you? Furthermore, how do you rescue someone after you’ve committed suicide?
May 19th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Un-Ted,
OK. So you’re worried about a sophisticated plan to blow a hole in the prison wall using a suicide bomber so Mahmoud can run out into the middle of Montana or Kansas or North Carolina or Arizona and try to hide among the local populace.
I’d be more worried that he might escape by getting a job in the kitchen and hiding in the back of the food delivery truck as it drives away (though they’ve gotten a lot better at implementing procedures to prevent that kind of escape as well.)
As Tom points out, there are concerns that conservatives have, and then there is something entirely different called reality.
May 19th, 2009 at 10:14 am
I think that he is more concerned that some sophisticated terrorist might immobilize Iron Man in his armor, then use him as a “human bomb” by dropping him from an aircraft onto the prison’s power plant to cover a commando-style assault. The terrorists on the inside have been tipped off that this is going to happen, and they take advantage of the ensuing chaos to escape.
I know this can happen, because this is how Mystique broke the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants out of Riker’s Island in the now-classic AVENGERS ANNUAL #10.
Heck, if these guys can cite “24″ as a source, then I guess we have to accept comic books as well.
May 19th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Tom is right. We have the technology.
We’ve designed plastic prison cells to hold “super-terrorists” like Magneto. I know it’s possible because I saw it in a movie….
May 19th, 2009 at 11:46 am
hey!- spending 80 large a year on Supermax for t these mooks to stop them from whacking themselves is a poor use of fazules. if they want whack themselves? fuggetaboutit.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:38 am
This is why the “Close Gitmo” crowd is going to lose this debate: a failure to address reality, and the tendency to mock real concerns. You could win the debate, if you engaged in real debate. By living in your own fantasy bubble, the “close Gitmo” crowd leaves the President few options other than continuing Bush policies.
Do you really want the planner of 9-11 moved to Florence? Anyone think it would be hard for terrorists to move a team across the border into the US?
June 2008: ” Taliban militants staged a brazen bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan late Friday, blowing down the front gate and helping more than 600 inmates to escape, officials said. At least 17 police officers and prisoners were killed.
The complex attack included a truck bombing at the main gate, a suicide bomber who struck a back wall and rockets fired from outside, setting of a series of explosions that rattled Kandahar, the country’s second biggest city.”
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jun13/0,4670,AfghanPrisonAttack,00.html
May 20th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
@Un Ted
Omar Abdel Rahman & Ramzi Yousef are already there. Colorado is not Afghanistan.
The reason there are prisoners at Gitmo has absolutely nothing to do with security.
It was only about keeping them in a place where they didn’t have to worry about little things like the 4th amendment, 5th amendment, 6th amendment, & 8th amendment to the US constitution.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:08 am
Stephen: thank you for a serious answer. We may disagree, but it’s good to see at least some on this blog acknowledging the seriousness of the issue.
By the way, it appears that 90 US Senators, including the Democratic Majority Leader, and the Director of the FBI agree with me:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/20/senate-votes-to-block-fun_n_205797.html