While I’m on the same page as Andy and others when it comes to opposing the release of the Uighurs and putting them on the dole, I’m not sure I’m in lockstep with the Republican consensus against putting Gitmo detainees in American prisons. Now, I am against it. I think keeping Gitmo open is a better option for all sorts of reasons. But I keep hearing about how putting these people in Leavenworth or Pelican Bay will put Americans in grave peril and I don’t see it. I think it would be needlessly expensive and create all sorts of legal problems, and it’d probably create new security hassles and dangers for the corrections officers (just ask Louis Pepe). But I just find the “terrorists on our soil” argument to be fairly weak when it makes it sound like these Jihadists will stage a huge prison break and, a la 24, immediately know where to lay their hands on codebreaking computers, poison gas, and assault teams for hire.
Taking these enemy combatants is surely a needless and unwise burden, but it’s possible the GOP is overplaying a decent-enough hand.