GIVEN THE BRONX TERROR PLOT, IS PLACING GITMO PRISONERS IN US PRISONS A WISE IDEA?
President Barack Obama is facing his first serious challenge and rebuff with Congress' rejection last week of his plan to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison (or Gitmo).
Congress' rejection of his plans to shut the facility by January 2010 came at a crucial moment. The vote came within days of an attempt by US-born Islamic radicals to bomb synagogues in Riverdale, the Bronx, New York City and to fire a Stinger missile at airborne aircraft at the Stewart Air Base in Newburgh, in Orange County, New York.
The fact that the terror plotters were jail-house converts to radical Islam should Obama the impulse to rethink his decision to ship detainees out of Guantanamo Bay.
The prisoners should not be housed in the general population in the prisons. Placing these prisoners in the general prison population runs the serious risk of spreading radical ideas among the general inmate population. The only circumstance whereby Obama could reasonably place these prisoners in the general population, would be if he had the prisoners placed in an isolated wing or corridor of the prison away from the prison population at large. It would be absolutely reckless to place possible religious radicals in with the general prison population. This could serve to facilitate an expanding base for violent religious extremism.
It is disappointing that conservatives are so far the voices out front on this perspective. (For the denial-ville approach: Witness this contribution to the Daily Kos blog: "Prisons, Islam and American Bantustans.") Contrasted with this conservative columnist: Michelle Malkin, May 22, 2009 "Breeding Jihad in U.S. Prisons."
Liberals and leftists should also counsel against anything that could assist the expansion of religious radicalism. We should remain consistent with our principals. The ultimate reason why we are against hate groups is that we oppose the worst thing that these groups could do: act towards the murder of people. Mass killing is exactly what these homegrown terrorists, James Cromitie and company, had planned for Riverdale last week. We liberals and leftists cannot cherry pick the instances in which we want to oppose hate groups.
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Eric Gorski and Rachel Zoll, Associated Press, Friday, May 22, 2009,
Bronx bombing plot renews fears of radical Islam in prison
Wil Cruz, Joe Kemp and Patrice O'Shaughnessy May 22, 2009 DAILY NEWS STAFF, "http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/05/22/2009-05-22_radicals_often_born_in_state_prison.html."
Elisabeth Bumiller's New York Times article on US terror suspect recidivism rate, "Later Terror Link Cited for 1 in 7 Freed Detainees" May 20, 2009.
The New York Times' report on named recidivist individuals, active in terror, "The Recidivism Docket."
Monday, May 25, 2009
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