Guitmo prisoners – Not in my back yard

Kansas Republicans were fine with the idea of keeping prisoners at Guantanamo, during George Bush’s “war on terrorism.” Now that the camp is being closed there is a chorus of “not in my back yard.” They were fine with keeping the sometimes innocent people behind bars without trial indefinitely. Now that the base is being closed, the thought that the detainees might be coming to a state such as Kansas is unthinkable to those who made this mess in the first place. Senator Sam Brownback is a big winer when it comes to this issue.

From the Wichita Eagle:

With Guantanamo closing, where will the detainees go?

By Scott Canon and David Goldstein McClatchy Newspapers

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — If not Guantanamo, then where?
Anything but a welcoming party is forming here.
When President Barack Obama signed an order Thursday forcing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center within a year, he put in sharp relief the possibility that some of the world's most potentially dangerous terror suspects could be hauled to Kansas.
The U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth is on a list of imperfect choices for holding nearly 200 men whose legal status is as murky as their backgrounds.
Obama's long-promised action only heightened chances that Leavenworth could be the new focus for a contentious debate over how to prosecute non-citizens for alleged actions overseas, and whether their legal limbo has a foreseeable end.
"We're a military community and people understand that we need to do what the commander-in-chief says," said Andrea Adkins, Leavenworth's economic development administrator. "But there is a security threat any place where these people are located."
Kansas politicians and local government officials have complained loudly about the possibility of America's most troublesome captives being brought to the Midwest. Opponents' arguments center on security - both that the military prison might not be equipped for such high-risk inmates, and that the base and the community might be targeted by terrorists.
"This is just not going to happen on our watch," said Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas.
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Another issue is whether the US can house prisoners in the US who have never been to trial. This is another issue Brownback and Roberts don’t want to face.