Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) spoke with Fox News before today’s town hall meeting in Standish, Michigan about moving detainees to the prison there:
9/11 family member Debra Burlingame gave the folks at the town hall a lot to think about. READ ABOUT IT HERE.
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You don’t have to worry about these prisoners escaping. You have to worry about them proselytizing to other prisoners who will take up their causes and become like them. When they clone their anti-American jihadist cult insanity and we simply let a replicate out the door to further infect Americans they have achieved a wonderful goal. They will have created domestic terrorists funded by our prison systems. They will have created American jihdists that blend in nicely with our population because they are us.
I wonder if the Saudi’s would allow an American or Israeli religious leader an opportunity to proselytize in their jails and convert those of Islamic faith to Judaism or Christianity?
No clear thinking person believes the jihadists could escape from this state-of-the-art maximum security prison without external assistance. That is not what drives our concern.
According to both Debra Burlingame and Dave Munson, even Congressman Hoekstra could not answer the concerns expressed by Standish residents about potential attempts to break the jihadists from the prison there and the measures the federal government would need to take to prevent that from occurring. Surrounding Standish prison is long-held private property, both farmland and wooded lots, the feds would need to condemn (take) to create the stand-off distance needed to protect the prison from external attack. The local hospital is within one mile of the prison.
Standish is a rural, pretty community that has come to rely on the prison as its largest employers yet few, if any, of the guard jobs currently held by locals would be saved if Gitmo detainees are brought there. While the federal government could wave the age requirement for employment, 80% of the current guard force is over 37 and thus ineligible for employment as a federal prison guard and undoubtedly the feds would want an elite guard force for these prisoners.
Gov. Grandholm is walking a fine line on this. She wants to support Obama in the closure of Gitmo, look like she is doing something to protect jobs in Michigan (with the highest unemployment rate in the nation), and also express concern over the security arraignments if the detainees are brought to Michigan.
Granholm is a tool; more power to Hoekstra.