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| June 11, 2009 |
| New York City Stands Tall as Gitmo Trial Opens |
| By Kevin McCauley |
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Remember the phony uproar last month over word that President Obama was thinking about transferring Guantanamo Bay prisoners for trails and incarceration in the U.S.?
There was a great amount of grandstanding about the threat posed by the Gitmo crowd. Polticos spread tales of fear. They warned that terrorists would truly strike America’s heartland, firebombing supermax prisoners in an attempt to spring convicted terrorists.
 Kansas Republican Senators Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts put the kibosh on shifting the prisoners to Fort Leavenworth, citing the threat posed to nearby farms. South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham doesn’t want Gitmo guys even a mile away from the Palmetto State. They apparently would kill the tourist trade at S.C.’s beaches and golf courses.
New York City, of course, rose to the occasion. The first Gitmo prisoner to stand trial under Obama’s plan is doing so in the Big Apple. Ahmed Ghailani, indicted for the African embassy bombings, is locked up in the Metropolitan Correction Center, a medium to maximum federal facility in downtown Manhattan -- not far from the World Trade Center site.
Where is the outrage from NYC officials?
Rightfully, there is very little. The city understands the need to do its part in the fight against terrorism. New Yorkers treasure the rule of law. Prisoners must be put on trial, rather than held forever without one. The best way to fight terrorism is to confront it with the Constitution.
Republican House Leader John Boehner squawked about the trial as “the first step in the Democrats’ plan to import terrorists into America.”
He’s wrong. It is the first step in America’s plan to show the rest of the world that it stands as a beacon of justice.
(Image Reuters via Daily Mail) |
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