Posted on 06/06/2009 2:01:47 AM PDT by Son House
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz said on Wednesday he would support having Guantanamo Bay detainees housed at Rochester's Federal Medical Center as long as sufficient safeguards are met.
"If all the procedures are in place as they have done with everyone else, if we're very clear on what the legal avenues are that these people have, I think our professionals there can handle it," said the First District Congressman from Mankato.
But his view contrasts with Minnesota's only U.S. senator, who, like Walz, is a Democrat.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she is opposed to having any Guantanamo Bay detainees housed in Minnesota.
"There is no place in Minnesota for prisoners from Guantanamo," said Klobuchar. "We do not have the high-security facilities needed to hold these detainees."
Walz, who returned last week from his first visit to the Middle East, said it became clear in discussions with officials in those countries that the Guantanamo Bay prison frustrates the United States' effort to improve relations with the Muslim world.
"What I do know is that Guantanamo, as a symbol of hatred toward the United States and an impediment to security and peace, is incredibly strong," Walz said. He later said closure of Guantanamo takes away a recruiting tool for the terrorists.
In recent weeks, lawmakers from both parties have expressed concern about terrorism suspects from the Guantanamo Bay prison, or "Gitmo," being housed in U.S. prisons. The Democratically controlled Senate demanded more details of President Obama's plan, voting 90-6 to refuse to give him $80 million he requested to close the prison.
Walz said Rochester's 1,009-inmate Federal Medical Center on Rochester's east side already has demonstrated its ability to handle high-profile inmates, noting the prison held Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was housed in Rochester for four years. Abdel-Rahman came to Rochester in 1998 after being convicted for his advisory role in a 1993 plot to blow up New York City landmarks including the United Nations. He has suffered from health problems related to diabetes, asthma and a heart ailment.
"The idea that they are going to be housed here and they are going to escape at night and (cause) mayhem is an insult to our prison systems and our professionals," Walz said.
Walz's predecessor, Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht, did not feel the same way. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks, Gutknecht demanded that Abdel-Rahman be moved from the Rochester prison. He said the cleric's presence made the city a target for terrorists. Abdel-Rahman was moved in April 2002. He is being housed at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, N.C.
Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede said he is not overly concerned with the idea of these detainees coming to Rochester. "Certainly there are people out there (at the Federal Medical Center) that I'm sure are of a similar caliber probably to what some of the folks are that have been housed at Gitmo," he said.
Walz and Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede lack the vigilance and security mentality to protect Americans from terrorist. We know prison escapes happen all the time in this country.
When the prison held Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was housed in Rochester for four years, it was the citizens who where down range from machine guns protecting the prison after 9-11.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar recognizes there are no "high-security facilities needed to hold these detainees". Gitmo terrorist will get the best care the Mayo Clinic has to offer when the rest of the Democrats get their way
What this would encourage istaking hostage important people to exchange.
This idea of bringing them to the US isn’t just idiotic- it’s surreal.
This is all cosmetic. Any place that gets the inhabitants of Gitmo is going to be special; it is going to be policed as intensely as Gitmo was, where nobody ever got out. In essence it’s just moving Gitmo to some other geographic location under US control. It just sounds nicer to put it in, say, Rochester than out on some Cuban beach.
And the Muslims will bitch about their treatment and living conditions and will hate America just as much as they do now.
Why, of course. Obama is playing to the white liberal.
If all the procedures are in place as they have done with everyone else, if we’re very clear on what the legal avenues are that these people have, I think our professionals there can handle it,” said the First District Congressman from Mankato.
Way above your professionals paygrade. Regular Correctional Officers /Police Offiers / Courts are not trained to deal with enemy combatant terrorists. You can not treat a islamofacist terrorist that has waged war has trained and lioved for one goal-killAmericans destroy America in the same manner that you treat a bank robber or even a person that murdered their spouse etc.
Nobody can even guess how many skilled and determined potential terrorists are already here with more entering every day across the Southern border.
(This is all cosmetic. Any place that gets the inhabitants of Gitmo is going to be special; it is going to be policed as intensely as Gitmo was, where nobody ever got out. In essence it’s just moving Gitmo to some other geographic location under US control. It just sounds nicer to put it in, say, Rochester than out on some Cuban beach)
Gitmo is not policed.
It is a military combat detention facility on an ISLAND.For all intents and purpose being a military institution if under attack the military would not hesitate to call an air strike on the facility to win the battle.YOU think any poltiican is going to allow that in New York? Kansas? Wisconsin?
I don’t think this is going to be turned over to civvie prison guards. Wherever the Gitmo folks go, there will be a thick military presence.
Gitmo has never needed that. The military manpower (if you don’t like the word “police”) is too thick. It was designed to not need any “desperation” measures such as you describe (which would be highly undesirable since it would kill off all our intelligence in one fell swoop).
When it comes down to the nuts and bolts of the situation the best place to hold Gitmo detainees is Gitmo.
Send them to Washington DC where they will be with the rest of the trash.
I know people who were born and raised in Rochester, MN, who will not return there to live because it is now full of Arab medical staff and Somalis. Mayo is the premier medical facility for everyone in this part of the country. Accident victims and others with need of expert treatment are sent there from our smaller facilities on a daily basis. This includes those on Medicaid.
It is a bit over 100 miles from where I live. Too close for comfort. We’ll see how our local donk voters react to this. Will they congregate there with signs demanding the jihadis be set free? Some would do that.
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