Tom Josecelyn has a very important cover essay in the new edition of The Weekly Standard on “The Real Gitmo,” which, Tom concludes after spending a week there doing what used to be known as investigative journalism, is “America’s best detention facility for terrorists.”
Steve Hayes also takes a look at the back-to-the-jihad syndrome — Gitmo’s recidivism problem (his piece is aptly called “Catch and Release“). As Steve explains, the Obama approach is one that’s become familiar: blame Bush while making a bad situation worse.
In addition to laying the groundwork to transfer the Gitmo jihadists into the United States (i.e., to the white elephant prison in Thomson, Illinois), the administration has just announced the transfer of six detainees to Yemen — setting the stage to send dozens more. We might as well avoid the middle-man and deliver them right to bin Laden and Zawahiri. Tom and Steve had a terrific essay back in February about why Yemen was the last place you would want to send terrorists. [Thanks to John McCormack for reminding us about that one.] Bringing us up to date is a superb editorial in the WSJ this morning, which dissects both blunders: Yemen and Gitmo North.
Finally, you can also check out the two colums I wrote this week on Gitmo North (here and here), attempting to debunk both the canard that Gitmo causes terrorism and Sen. Dick Durbin’s assurances that transferring Gitmo detainees to the U.S. will not result in their release here.