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Fearmongering, Michigan jobs and closing down Gitmo
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Shortly after taking office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba within a year. As that deadline approaches, it is still to be determined where to put the terrorist suspects housed at Gitmo and whether or not to try them in federal courts.
This entire mess would have been completely avoided if former President George W. Bush had simply followed the Constitution and federal law in handling terrorist suspects. Instead, Bush used an ill-defined and open-ended war on terror as a pretext for a fascist agenda, which included holding the suspects for years without trial at Gitmo, an isolated location that has amounted to a tropical Siberia. Military tribunals, which are the hallmark of a police state, were set up to try the suspects, and torture, which is un-American, unconstitutional, illegal and immoral, has been used.
The abuses under this policy, which are contrary to American values, have reduced America's standing in the world, been used as a recruiting tool by Al Qaeda and other extremist groups, and damaged efforts to collect useful intelligence. We should also remember that while some of the Gitmo detainees are dangerous terrorists, others were taken prisoner in Afghanistan in response to U.S. bounties, sometimes by personal enemies, and still others happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When it comes to moving these detainees to U.S. prisons, fearmongering has taken place, with those opposed claiming that the detainees would be security risks and their new prisons terrorist targets. But there have been no escapes from the high security federal prisons housing 216 previously convicted international terrorists, as well as 139 domestic terrorists, and there have been no terrorist attacks on these prisons in attempts to free them.
As such, there is no excuse for not transferring the detainees to prisons on U.S. soil, with one possible location a recently closed maximum security state prison in Standish, MI. If taken over by the federal government, this facility could also provide more jobs in the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate.
As for trying the suspects, there have been 195 successful prosecutions of terrorists in federal courts since Sept. 11, 2001, including 30 so far this year. Military tribunals, by contrast, have only produced three convictions, with two of those convicted already released.
Closing Gitmo helps to restore the rule of law and is long overdue. Putting aside the fearmongering could create jobs in Michigan.
