Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) held a bloggers' conference call this morning, here is my report.The bulk of the call centered on the Obama administration's plan to close the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center. Of course administration still does not have a plan as to what to do with these inmates if Gitmo indeed closes.
Last month the Senate voted 90-6 to withhold funds to close Gitmo.
Brownback reminded bloggers that he has experience as a prisoner, in 2006, he voluntarily spent a night in Louisiana prison to educate himself on conditions there--he had previously spend a night in a Kansas lock-up.
And just three weeks ago, Brownback traveled to Cuba to see the Guantanamo Bay facility.
Of Gitmo, Brownback called it "One of the nicer prison facilities I've been in or around." He also said it was a "well run professional facility," while reminding listeners, "They are being detained, no question about it."
As for the lack-of-plan of the Obama administration to transfer these Gitmo inmates, Brownback offered, "I don't know where we'd duplicate this facility."
One of the oft-mentioned sites for these inmates is Leavenworth, Kansas, although Brownback has issues with moving the Gitmo terrorists to any place within the United States.
The Kansan has confidence that these inmates could be incarcerated in a prison such as Leavenworth, but he has concerns that a terrorist could travel to the town near Kansas City, and make "a statement" by exploding a bomb near the facility.
The Fort Leavenworth disciplinary barracks abut the Missouri River, but that's not all, "There's a train that runs through the place every 15 minutes, there are schoolchildren--children of our military personnel--attending a school nearby."Gitmo isn't anything like that, of course.
Our nation is essentially broke, and Brownback told us that it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to replicate the Gitmo detention facility somewhere else.
Do you want more? How about the trials: Brownback said "it would slow down the military commission court and the trials if we move the detainees to another location."
The secure facility to handle these cases is already at Gitmo.
I look at it this way: Gitmo, to use the administration's favorite phrase, is not just shovel-ready, but ready.
Once Gitmo closes, Brownback cautioned, the issue that many people in the Middle East and even Europe have about these inmates will come to the forefront: It's not that they're being held at Gitmo, but why they're being held at all.
During the question and answer session, Brownback addressed the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Although he hadn't yet viewed this morning's speech by the president in Cairo or read a transcript, the Kansan denounced Obama and his policy-of sorts "to harangue Israel, which is our best Democratic ally in the world in the toughest region of the world."
Related post:
Sen. Brownback goes to prison
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