Yeah, I kinda stole the headline from Jon Stewart. What can I say?
There are two points I would like to make about the pending closing of Gitmo and its aftermath. The first is on the argument that transferring prisoners to US prisons is unsafe and the second on the potential of released detainess rejoining the GWOT.
The first issue is the easiest to tackle. These detainees would likely be sent to a Supermax-style prison. As anyone who watches Discovery on a regular basis knows, there is no escapong from a Supermax.
Prisoners are kept in their cells over 23 hours per day. They have their meals there and have no contact, verbal or physical, with any other inmate. They are handcuffed through a slot in their cell door before it can be opened. Each door in the facility is controlled electronically via an impenetrable control room. When a prisoner is moved through the facility, he/she is accompanied by multiple guards and are never uncuffed (and most of the time fully shackled) in the presence of a guard.
These specific prisoners would probably be under even tighter supervision as would the prison itself. There would be a heavy military presence both on the prison grounds and in proximity. By the time an inmate made one suspicious move, the prison would go on full lockdown as would every road, store, airport, bus station, and subway in a five mile radius. CENTCOM would immediately go to DEFCON 4.
So that argument is debunked. Once here, they will never be a threat to anyone on US soil while in our custody, and since they cannot escape our custody..well, you get the picture.
The second issue is what to do with prisoners who are found to be innocent, whose cases are thrown out for rights violations, etc. This is a trickier situtation, but not a deal breaker, especially when it comes to closing Gitmo.
According to the DoD,with Gitmo open over 500 detainees have been released and just over 60 have rejoined the fighting.
Let's think about this for a second. Under Bush's watch, 60 out of 500 are still "on the attack," with Gitmo open. Yet Obama is putting us at risk by merely moving, not releasing, some 300.
So assuming that all 300 of the current detainees are eventually released. Obama has still released 200 less Gitmo prisoners than Bush, with the bonus of shutting down a huge terrorist propoganda issue!!
Maybe it's because I am not a Republican and I am an elitist with my certificate in Correctional Facilities and Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice and read the New York Times and {gasp} blog on DailyKos, but I just don't get what all the fuss is about.