The beauty of Guantanamo Bay detention camp is twofold. First, it is isolated. A successful al-Qaida assault or escape would be nearly inconceivable. Second, it is a military base on which military laws apply. By transferring terror detainees from Guantanamo to Thomson, Ill., President Obama plans to exchange those securities for the vague hope that simply relocating detainees will remove just one of the numerous incentives fanatical jihadi warriors have invented to justify attacking us. According to the White House, Guantanamo Bay is a "recruiting tool" for al-Qaida. But if that is true, it's not the prison that's the tool. It's the indefinite detention. Obama plans to close the prison, but continue the indefinite detention.
President Bush made numerous mistakes in prosecuting the War on Terror. But his initial decision to protect the homeland by projecting the war outward was sound. He brought the war to the terrorists to destroy their ability to bring it to us. President Obama is pulling the war inward. Trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court in Manhattan and bringing terror detainees to a civilian prison 150 miles from Chicago will demilitarize a significant portion of this war. Though the detainees in Illinois will remain in military custody, they will be on civilian soil in the very heartland of this nation.
Al-Qaida and its sympathizers thus will have their attention redirected away from our offshore military institutions and toward civilian ones inside our borders. Not only does this needlessly invent myriad legal problems, it needlessly endangers the American people by literally bringing the war home. This is a colossal mistake. Congress must not allow it to happen.