Close Guantanamo, open Alcatraz? (Jan 27)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
Some of us are wondering what will happen to the 224 terrorism suspects who now inhabit the graybar hotel at the Guantanamo Naval Base. A few of them will be sent back to their home countries. A few of them, their nationalities undetermined, will be sent to any country who will have them. And quite a few will wind up in prison in America.
The wardens of federal prisons, such as Leavenworth, don’t seem to want them. The prison staffs would have as much trouble protecting the terrorism suspects from the rest of the inmates as they would keeping them in custody.
Some suggest they should be sent to Alcatraz. That island tourist attraction in San Francisco Bay is a former federal prison, and could become one again, probably at no more cost than fixing up a place for them at a federal prison elsewhere.
Of course, there is one problem. The Democrats of San Francisco, who have been lobbying for years to have the Guantanamo prison closed, wouldn’t hear of it. A move to Alcatraz would be a classic case of Not in My Back Yard syndrome.
Some of the people already released from Guantanamo go back to their countries and rejoin terrorism groups.
“Two Saudis formerly jailed at the U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have joined Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch,” says the Christian Science Monitor. Well, that’s nice.
Many of the remaining Guantanamo tenants are Yemenis (Yumpin Yemeni!). The Bush administration suggested sending them to Saudi Arabia to participate in a program the Saudis have to reform Al Qaeda operatives so they are fit to live with civilized people, but the Saudis want no part of them.
Some 520 detainees already have been released from Guantanamo, so there aren’t that many left. But if the Saudis and the San Franciscans won’t have them, who will?
