March 3, 2009, - 1:32 pm
Where Are We Gonna Put ‘Em?: Even Leavenworth Says NIMBY to Gitmo Terrorists
By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
I’m not sure why everyone’s so afraid of housing the Guantanamo Bay Islamic terrorists after they’re released by the saintly Barack Obamessiah from the beachside dwellings.
You see, these are just innocent men of the “Religion of Peace” who like to write poetry, read Harry Potter, lounge on La-Z-Boys, and were wrongly accused. Right? I mean that’s what we’re being told and have been told for years. And, presumably, all these people who don’t want them in their neighborhoods must have agreed with the Obama view of the terrorists when they voted for him. Or maybe they just couldn’t be bothered to make sure their views and Obama’s jibed. And, after all, the Republicans gave us a candidate who wanted to shut down Gitmo, too. So, it wasn’t a selling point.
Now, at least four state legislatures–Indiana, California, South Carolina, and Texas–have passed laws prohibiting these peaceful men of the Mohammedan faith from entering their states. And three separate bills in the U.S. Congress seek to bar Gitmo detainees from prisons in certain states or deny funding for them in any federal prison.
Why all the fuss, if these are such innocent men?
Why won’t the nice people of Leavenworth, Kansas–who have far more hardened criminals than these nice, gentlemanly Al-Qaeda bodyguards and Taliban explosives technicians–let these poor, downtrodden men in? I don’t get it. These people are harmless, cute, and cuddly, with their natural Persian rug chest hair sweaters and charming scowls no different than that of our own Oscar winners. And that nice book that really doesn’t say to kill non-Muslims . . . in the carefully edited English translation.
Leavenworth residents are bristling over idea of Gitmo transplants
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. – Mayor Lisa Weakley can’t think of a single good reason the federal government should transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Army’s Fort Leavenworth in this city of 35,000.
She can, however, list many reasons why this community – even though it’s famed for its prisons and has the Defense Department’s only maximum-security facility – should not be their next home, starting with worries about the threat of terrorism.
“Is it really a bad thing not to want it in your backyard if you’ve got a really good, solid explanation?” she asks. “We have geographical challenges, security concerns and economic concerns. These are different types of prisoners than we’re used to.”
President Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge when he signed an executive order Jan. 22 requiring the closure of Guantanamo within a year. Detainees who can’t be released, returned home or sent to another country will be moved to a U.S. detention facility. Pentagon officials studying potential destinations have visited Fort Leavenworth, the Navy brig in North Charleston, S.C., and Camp Pendleton in California.
The Kansas Legislature, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the state’s U.S. senators all object to sending them here.
Hmmm . . . the same Sebelius who supported and campaigned for Obama and just took a cabinet appointment in his administration. Anyone see the disconnect?
It’s almost impossible to find anyone here who thinks it’s a good idea. “Nobody wants them here,” says Mo Jones, 32, who owns Mo-Cuts Barbershop across Metropolitan Street from Fort Leavenworth. “We know their history. They’re terrorists.”
Ya think? Who’d you vote for, Mo?
Curtis Hammond, 56, who worked at the federal penitentiary here for 20 years, worries detainees would instill in American prisoners “their ways of thinking and their religious beliefs.”
But wait, I thought their religion was the “Religion of Peace.” They’d never behead or honor kill anyone. Fly planes into buildings? Boy, you have a great imagination. Would never happen.
Mike Martinez, 60, a manager for an area company, says, “If they can’t be charged with something and tried, they ought to let them go.”
Yeah, I don’t need to ask for whom this genius voted.
Phil Urban would like the detainees to stay at Guantanamo. “If we do bring them here on U.S. soil, that changes their legal status,” which might result in their release. If they have to be relocated, though, says Urban, 62, a music store owner, “Fort Leavenworth can handle them as good as anybody else.”
Whoa. Someone actually gets it. Sounds like an “Evil Zionist Empire” card holder to me.
Attorney General Eric Holder heads a task force that is studying the status of the more than 200 detainees. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd says it’s “far too early” to know what it will advise.
Ha, he was the incompetent Julie Myers’ spokesman at ICE before he graduated to “Americans are cowards” man.
A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Jan. 30-Feb. 1 found that half of Americans disapproved of Obama’s decision to close the Guantanamo prison; 44% approved.
Where’s the Gallup Poll on how many of ’em voted for liberals in Congress?
Fort Leavenworth abuts the northern edge of Leavenworth and is more like an extension of the community than a separate place. Anyone can drive onto the 8-square-mile post after showing a driver’s license and a vehicle security check.
Easy access to the fort would end if Guantanamo detainees end up there, says Leavenworth Police Chief Pat Kitchens. He worries the town could become a target of terrorists angry about detainees’ imprisonment. “Terrorists don’t target military installations. They target local populations,” Kitchens says. He has 66 police officers and figures he’d need more if detainees end up here.
Securing the fort could be a challenge. The Missouri River is its eastern border. Railroad tracks on fort property are used by about 50 coal and freight trains a day. The city leases part of the fort’s airport for use by private planes.
Steve Jack of the Leavenworth County Development Corp., warns that if detainees come here, some countries might refuse to send officers to the Command and General Staff College, ending a valuable cultural exchange and eliminating diplomatic allies for the nation.
I repeat the same question: For whom did Lisa Weakley, Mo Jones, and the rest of the “Islamophobe whiners” in this article vote? ‘Cuz that’s how the Democratic party views you–as Islamophobe whiners. And I’m not just talking President. Like I said, there wasn’t much choice on this issue atop the ballot. But how much you wanna bet they pulled the D lever all the way, voting down the line for the end of Gitmo?
“Not In My Back Yard”? People, you welcomed it in your front door by giving liberals a clean sweep of Congress in November. Don’t blame it on anyone but the image in your mirror when terrorists start boarding in your hood.
I can’t wait to see Ahmed and Mohammed, formerly of Gitmo, hanging at the Leavenworth franchise of Khalid’s Falafel Hut. I mean, this is what America is all about, right?
The land of opportunity . . . no matter how many people you planned to blow up.
**** UPDATE–Reader Sean writes:
Just thought I’d let you know that I COMPLETELY agree with the Mayor of Leavenworth, KS. My wife and I lived there for 3 years, and both of our sons were born at St. John’s Hospital right there in town. The post itself is a bucolic, historical place. Aside from the military prison, it is home to the Army’s Command and General Staff College and the Combined Arms Command. The town of Leavenworth itself if more like Mayberry RFD than something you’d see near DC or the Pentagon. And I mean that in a good way. Moving the terrorists there will not only make the post a nightmare for access AND a target for terrorists, it will be a collecting spot for every Code Pink nut-job and Sean Penn wanna-be who want to protest how “evil” we are for holding these guys. It would ruin the post, the town, and probably the surrounding towns like Lansing and Platte City, MO which would become staging areas for these nuts.
But that’s probably okay with the folks in DC and Chicago and LA. After all, Kansas is “flyover country.”
Well, of course, I agree with her, too. I just wonder where all these people were during the Presidential campaign, voicing these concerns to the two major party nominees bent on closing down Gitmo.
I don’t get liberals at all. They say we should be nice and understanding towards Islamists! Except when it comes to putting them up in their communities!
Where their own security is concerned, they’re suddenly not so tolerant of “The Other.” So much for building bridges and holding hands and singing “kumbaya” around the campfire.
NormanF on March 3, 2009 at 2:21 pm