Draft Order: Gitmo Terrorists Coming to Illinois

Just a draft? Well, maybe. But it jibes with previous reports.

There are obviously two problems here: The first, more important problem is that these people should not be held in American prisons, where they are then vested with additional rights, and may wind up petitioning for release. At Gitmo, they have less such rights (although damn do those courts keep finding they have more).

The second problem was more of a tactic, a way to block this without having to prevail on this first point: The NIMBY question, where we kept asking, rhetorically, "Well, do you want these terrorists living by you?" This was always a fairly minor objection, relatively speaking, compared to the first, but it was used because it generates a visceral reaction.

Well, since Obama's able to sell the politicians in his home state's political machine on accepting these guys (who are, in fact, dangerous, as are the brothers-in-arms who might be tempted to come by and say hello), that second objection is mooted, except for the citizens of Illinois, I guess, and what are they going to do about it?

But the first objection remains powerful. And we still have no good answer from Obama on this point, except that it somehow makes us safer to be nice to terrorists.

posted by Ace at 08:46 PM

| Access Comments