Gitmo Detainees Coming to Virginia, Local Dems Freak

Obama supporters in Alexandria, Virginia suddenly don't think closing Gitmo is such
a great idea (Photo credit - Salvis Are)

Rich, thick irony. Normal people think it's a good idea to keep terrorists on a faraway island, in a prison controlled by the United States military. Liberals disagree, for no readily apparent reason, and want Gitmo closed. So President Obama says he will close it next year.

But closing the base raises the question that any grade school child (but apparently no liberals) might ask; what do we do with the terrorists who want to kill us and destroy our cities? Barack Obama (in another manchurian president decision) thinks we should bring them to the United States to be nearer to our people and population centers. The administration has previously floated the idea of bringing them to South Carolina, but the left didn't care about that - after all, South Carolina is a red state.

But this morning, the liberal Democrats who run Alexandria, Virginia open their beloved Washington Post to find that their beloved president wants to bring terrorists to Northern Virginia. And the wailing from the NIMBY lefties began.

An outcry is growing in Alexandria over a prospect no one seems to like: terrorist suspects in the suburbs.

The historic, vibrant community less than 10 miles from the White House markets itself as a "federal friendly zone." But it has turned decidedly unfriendly to news that the Obama administration might move some detainees from their highly controlled military fortress at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Alexandria to stand trial at the federal courthouse.

"We would be absolutely opposed to relocating Guantanamo prisoners to Alexandria," Mayor William D. Euille (D) said. "We would do everything in our power to lobby the president, the governor, the Congress and everyone else to stop it. We've had this experience, and it was unpleasant. Let someone else have it."

The mayor glibly says, "Let someone else have it." Let's have him give us the name of a city or town who should get these murderous thugs. Or, better yet, let's give him a choice. Would you rather have them stay at Guantanamo or move them to Alexandria? And, of course his answer, along with the answer of every other mayor in the country, would be to leave the bastards in Cuba. And why is that?

The 2006 death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of conspiring in the terrorist attacks of Sept, 11, 2001, turned the neighborhood into a virtual encampment, with heavily armed agents, rooftop snipers, bomb-sniffing dogs, blocked streets, identification checks and a fleet of television satellite trucks. . . .

City officials and some legislators are concerned that terror trials would take years, shut down roads and cost millions and could invite attacks from terrorist sympathizers. . . .

Putting detainees on trial in Alexandria would mean moving them from an isolated island prison 90 miles from Florida to a neighborhood brimming with residents, thousands of federal employees and the new Westin Alexandria Hotel 190 feet from the courthouse door. . . .

"The concern is that someone from the terrorist side of things would want to make some statement in conjunction with the trials," said Branigan, a former senior Air Force anti-terrorism officer. . . .

"I've never agreed with people who say 'not in my back yard,' but there are just too many people around here," said Jim Boulton, president of the unit owners association at the Caryle Towers condominium complex, which has been trying to get the government to remove security barriers left over from the Moussaoui trial. "They need to find someplace else."

This is what you get when you vote for change for change's sake. There is no reason to bring terrorists to the United States, but Obama is doing so simply because Bush did not. Obama could just decide that Gitmo is a better place to house these guys, but announce that he will run the place better than Bush did. Fine. Have at it. But when Eric Holder says that when Gitmo is closed, some detainees will be released into American cities and the others will be housed in Liberal cities, the last thing I want to hear from the Liberals, who voted for Obama, is how they don't want terrorists in their neighborhood. You wanted change. Here is your frickin' change.

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