Hardin, Montana — the new Gitmo?
CNN:
The tiny town of Hardin, Montana, is offering an answer to a very thorny question: Where should the nation put terror detainees if the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is shut down by the end of the year as President Obama has pledged?
Hardin, population 3,400, sits in the southeast corner of Montana, in the state’s poorest county. Its small downtown is almost deserted at midday. The Dollar Store is going out of business. The Hardin Mini Mall is already shut. The town needs jobs — and fast.
Hardin borrowed $27 million through bonds to build the Two Rivers Regional Correctional Facility in hopes of creating new employment opportunities. The jail was ready for prisoners two years ago, but has yet to house a single prisoner.
People here say politics in the capital of Helena has kept it empty. But the city council last month voted 5-0 to back a proposal to bring Gitmo detainees — some of the most hardened terrorists in the world — to the facility.
“It would bring jobs. Believe it or not, it would even bring hope and opportunity,” Greg Smith, Hardin’s economic development director, told CNN.
Jobs. Hope. Opportunity. With so many of America’s elected officials cowardly trying to pass the buck, the good people of Hardin, Montana are admirably stepping up to the plate to address this pressing problem.
Now, I’ll admit, I wouldn’t want hardened terrorists (and there ought to be fair trials to determine which ones are truly such terrorists and which ones aren’t) in my community, even in some Supermax prison, but, then, I wouldn’t want to live in a community with such a facility anyway. But what’s so admirable about Hardin’s proposal is that it makes sense for Hardin. So if the people of Hardin want to take on this responsibility, why not let them? They’ve volunteered. And it may just help them pull themselves out of their economic malaise.
But will it happen? Probably not:
The state’s congressional leaders have lined up against the plan. “Housing potential terrorists in Montana is not good for our state,” Max Baucus, the state’s senior Democratic senator, wrote to Smith. “These people stop at nothing. Their primary goal in life, and death, is to destroy America.”
Well, that may be true, if somewhat of a simplistic exaggeration — they’re human beings, after all, not super-human monsters, and the matter of who they are and what they want in life is far more complex than Baucus suggests — but “housing” isn’t really the right word for what would be done to them in Montana. That makes it seem like they’d be put in halfway houses and let out on furloughs. They wouldn’t be housed, they’d be, as they are now, incarcerated in what would surely be turned into a super-maximum security prison. And whatever their primary goals, it would be awfully difficult for them to “destroy America” from behind the walls and bars of that prison.
Of course, it isn’t just up to Hardin. Many others, and not just Baucus and his colleagues in Congress, will have to weigh in. And it may very well be determined that moving the detainees to Hardin just isn’t a great idea. But it should at least be taken seriously, not least because no one else seems to want them.
Hey, if it could really bring hope and opportunity to this depressed part of America, why not?
(Cross-posted from The Reaction.)
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23 Responses to “Hardin, Montana — the new Gitmo?”
“Hey, if it could really bring hope and opportunity to this depressed part of America, why not?”
I like the way Michael thinks.
We can use this same thinking to bring nuclear and toxic waste storage, along with any number of other less-than-attractive activities to the inner cities.
Hope and Opportunity.
I don't think Hardin, Montana would want nuclear and toxic waste storage in their city, jwest. I think they feel that their their remoteness would help in keeping terrorists secured.
But I wonder, my fellow Americans, why we look at these Islamic terrorist as much worse than some of the inmates we have already in our Supermaxes? We have gang members that are as (and even more) bloodthirsty than Islamic terrorists incarcerated. We have serial rapists and killers incarcerated. Full blown sociopaths incarcerated. Etc. My best friend, a former gang member and ex-con, told me that his gang were terrorists everyday.
Are these Islamic terrorists the worst criminals ever????
T,
I was suggesting we put nuclear waste in poor black neighborhoods in the inner cities of Detroit and Baltimore in the name of Hope and Opportunity. (It was a bit of satire based on exploiting the economic circumstances of poor people to put unwanted items in their neighborhood)
Next to blowing up an American city, the best visual for the terrorist’s cause would be a massive jail break of their compatriots. Even though gang members are in jail, they don’t have a well financed world wide network of fanatics who are eager to give up their own lives in pursuit of a jihad victory.
When the heads of a few prison guard’s children are sawed off to make a point of how serious the al-Qaeda members are of getting their friends out of prison, the Montana residents might want to rethink their support of this proposal.
Has anyone ever escaped from a Supermax prison?
My apologies jwest. My comment was a weak in what I was trying to say. But I get your point and satire.
“Next to blowing up an American city, the best visual for the terrorist’s cause would be a massive jail break of their compatriots. Even though gang members are in jail, they don’t have a well financed world wide network of fanatics who are eager to give up their own lives in pursuit of a jihad victory.”
Methinks I need to chew on that for a bit since I am aware of how pervasive cell phone use (and it's dangers) is in prison. Check out this Wired Magazine article on the subject.
jwest,
Stop being ridiculous and, more importantly, Grow A Pair.
Chris,
This is why those dot connection pictures you did in elementary school always came out different from the rest of the kids.
It certainly can’t be a big stretch to imagine a terrorist organization wanting to show that the Great Satin (America, not Dick Cheney) is weak and fallible. What easier way to break people out of jail than to simultaneously hold the families of 5 or 6 prison guards while they walk the inmates out?
As I mentioned in the past comment, yes there are tough murderers in SuperMax prisons, but their friends back in South Central L.A. aren’t too willing to meet Allah in order to help the criminal escape. This is what makes Islamic terrorists people to be afraid of; they are bat-shit crazy.
There is a difference between being scared of something without reason and realizing what can happen if the right precautions aren’t taken.
“Women and children can be careless but not men.” Vito Corleone
jwest,
Tell me, is it difficult to live in constant terror of the supposed Terrorist Supermen?
Do you have to carry around spare underwear? Do you need a walker to steady your shaking knees?
As I suggested a week ago:
Let's see, 240 detainees, the feds pay >$30,000 a year each. That's $7.2 million. Any states out there need a $7.2 million cash infusion, less actual costs? Hmmmm?
For all the huffing and puffing by legislators and the media, these guys aren't any more dangerous than anyone else at San Quintin, nor any more difficult to keep in prison.
Private companies house 99,000 prisoners and make a tidy profit. Bet they'll be glad to take them.
jwest, your fantasy scenario might interest someone in Hollywood. Why not try to peddle it there?
Anyway, as always I welcome the GOP to rave on all they want. At present, on this issue, they're arguing against not just Obama, but GW Bush, Patraeus, Gates and the Joint Chiefs. I love it. Lining up against the top military officials on military matters. You idiots.
I live about 12 miles from a maximum security prison and my parents lived for some time in Canon City, Colorado which is home to the Colorado state pen. Most community residents do not worry much about escapes. If there is an escape the thinking is the prisoners usually want to get out of town as quickly as possible and aren't likely to hang around.
What people do worry about is the friends and families of the prisoners coming into town and causing trouble, and this is kind of an unknown with the Gitmo prisoners. My personal feeling is there probably isn't a great deal to worry about, but if Gitmo prisoners were brought to the prison 12 miles away I would still have some uneasiness.
I do live in constant fear of pissing off the wrong type of person. Anyone in the below listed categories is capable of superhuman strength, irrational behavior and total disregard for their own lives: (In no particular order)
• Skinny hillbillies.
• Black women
• Islamic terrorists.
Anyone in the below listed categories is capable of superhuman strength, irrational behavior and total disregard for their own lives:
You have to love jwest. There doesn't seem to be any conversation on any topic he's unwilling to coarsen.
Oh, Ricorun.
Chris and I were just engaging in some friendly banter.
Bitter and humorless is no way to go through life. Come be a conservative – we’re statistically proven to be happier.
GS -
Has anyone ever escaped from a Supermax prison?
No. But I suspect you already knew that, and just wanted the point raised.
jwest…understand that your's is an adult, mature, thoughtful opinion or relevant potential realities. Your short-school-bus-riding detractors are still trying to deal w/ the definitions of most of the words I just wrote in the last sentence. And your last comment about being statistically happier was right on the money, but again, you obviously penned it thinking that those former special students would be able appreciate the truth in what you wrote. And as for your list of things to fear, right on the money again. I must assume that you are a rare breed indeed, if you are a conservative of color…
Austin Roth–
I didn't know it, but I did suspect it was rare, to say the least.
It was actually Jwest who raised the point. He made comments here on this thread about massive jail breaks and the children of prison guards being murdered.
Ricorun you must be greenydreams or chrisie or related to them…I do believe that they drew the first coarse blood in this streem. Do they not qualify for your lofty comdemnation?
“What people do worry about is the friends and families of the prisoners coming into town and causing trouble, and this is kind of an unknown with the Gitmo prisoners.”
Uh… I didn't think our State Department allowed those sorts of people in the US…. So I doubt we would have much to worry about.
And if there was a group of friends and families visiting the “former Gitmo prisoners, now in Montana” then what better way can you think of to capture some suspected terrorists! They show up at the prison…. we send in the troops and capture them… No need to send them anywhere else since they're already at the prison. We just throw away the key and wait for the next visitors.
Oh wait… Bush is no longer prez…. Never mind…
In Canon City, Cornell Companies runs a juvenile prison. In 2006, the police were called there 192 times. It took two officers responding hours for each response and hours more to fill out the paperwork. The company had been in business for at least 15 years, and they were still unable to control a bunch of kids.
Do you think these numbskulled amateurs in Hardin, MT, could do any better?
[...] Bay, Cuba, is shut down by the end of the year as President Obama has pledged? Hardin … Read Full Post: Hardin, Montana — the new Gitmo? – The Moderate Voice Related Info:Hardin, Montana bids to be new Guantánamo Bay – Guardian UnlimitedArgument over – [...]
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Boy… I don't get this line argument at all. International terrorists — lots of em — are already incarcerated in US prisons. Here's just a few high profilers as chronicled by the Washington Post:
Detained in the supermax facility in Colorado are Ramzi Yousef, who headed the group that carried out the first bombing of the World Trade Center in February 1993; Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted of conspiring in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; Ahmed Ressam, of the Dec. 31, 1999, Los Angeles airport millennium attack plots; Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, conspirator in several plots, including one to assassinate President George W. Bush; and Wadih el-Hage, convicted of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya.
good point keelaay. that seems to have shut down the fear mongers.