Federal officials began touring a soon-to-be-closed maximum security prison in Standish, MI, to see if that's where they want to ship al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.
I am in favor of sending them here to Michigan, but not to Standish. It IS too near a population center that could be used as terrorist target (ie a hostage situation to entice the government to release the prisoners.)
Here's my thought: send all the prisoners currently being held in Alger Maximum Correctional Facility near Munising, MI, to Standish instead, and send the al-Qaeda prisoners to Alger Max.
The military will need to establish a base nearby; there's much more space in the Upper Peninsula to do that, if it is to be a joint military/civilian operation.
The local population WOULD be at risk, no matter where the al-Qaeda prisoners go.
If that's to be the standard, then here's another thought: distribute the prisoners throughout the country. There are enough maximum security prisons throughout the nation that we can send 3-4 prisoners to each, and not publicize who's going to which prison. That would eliminate a single target for terrorists to go after.
Our prison system can handle these people. There's a lot of NIMBY going on around here, nothing more.
We held Nazi prisoners in this country for years; in fact there were 400,000 German and Italian soldiers held in POW camps in the continental U.S. during World War II; there were close to five hundred POW camps in the following states: Ohio, California, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Nebraska. According to one article that I referenced, Texas alone had seventy camps.
People ought to get over their apprehension. This is nothing new.
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