GITMO NORTH

The Obama administration has announced that they will be moving Gitmo detainees to a federal prison in Thomson, Illinois.  Perhaps they are not sure what the term 'close' means.  There is a huge difference between 'closing' something and 'relocating' it.  Maybe because they have no real-world experience, they're a little confused.  If they did, they would know that if you close a business, that means it is done, finished, no longer in existence.  Relocation, however, means the business continues as it was before, just in a new location.

Apparently, a heavily guarded military installation is an inappropriate setting for violent terrorists captured on the battlefield.  What's really needed is a federal prison with union member guards (whose main interest is in cashing that paycheck, rather than national security), that will eventually be even more super-max than the superest super-max prison (super-duper max infinity, maybe?) available today. 

Administration lawyers have also made brief mention that there are some detainees who can't be tried for one reason or another, but can't be let go because they are such bad characters.  Bringing them to the states would cause the courts to clamor for civil trials for them in the interest of 'justice'.  Which means they need an alternative place to keep them.  Since other countries don't want a bunch of dangerous terrorists on their soil, finding a home for those dirtbags is proving tricky.  So, most likely, they will stay in the real Gitmo for a while longer yet.

Which means we'll have Gitmo North and Gitmo South.  So I guess you might say Obama has actually expanded Gitmo.

What really gets me, though, and I haven't heard much about this, is the fact that they are going to be moving these islamic extremists a mere 420 miles (just under 7 hours by car) from the largest muslim population in the United States - Dearborn Michigan.

This is not to say that all muslims are radical, but the truth is that there are radicals on our soil.  30% of Dearborn's population is muslim. Even if there are few homegrown terrorists, there are certainly those who are at least sympathetic to the cause.  How difficult do you think it would be to 'lose' a few foreign radicals in a population of roughly 30,000 muslims?  It only takes a few to aid and abet.

Planning a prison break a mere 420 miles away, with the entire US to hide in afterwards is a heck of a lot easier than planning one on a military base on an island 90 miles from the US mainland.  Once the prison break is effected, how hard would it be to melt back into that large population and prepare for the next jihad?

It is widely acknowledged that most muslims are peaceful, but, taking a look back over recent history, it is also easy to see that when the radicals among them lash out, the peaceful members rarely speak up.  The shoot out at a warehouse in Dearborn that took the life of a radical imam back in October was soundly condemned by certain sectors of the muslim community, who ralllied around the dead imam.  The moderate muslims remained silent on the issue, for the most part.

Even though most of the community has been born and raised in America, there are those who feel they are muslims first, Americans second, and we forget this at our peril. 

Supporters of closing Gitmo are fond of saying that the reason it needs to be closed is because it is a recruiting tool for radical jihadists.  So....moving it to Illinois is suddenly going to make it more acceptable?  Or is the point that we need to move them here so that we are forced to subject them to our civilian court system - practically guaranteeing that they will be freed and thus no longer a worry to the administration?

Well, until they are captured on the battlefield again or, God forbid, commit another terror attack on American soil.  I guess we'll just have to deal with that when it happens.

In an effort to find a silver lining in all situations, there's this - at least there will actually be some real job creation out of this mess, so that is a refreshing change.  Granted, they are dangerous, union only jobs, but why nitpick, right?

Focus on the silver lining (no matter how thin) and ignore the inconvenient truths.  It's the progressive way.