Many detainees previously freed from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have returned to terrorism — even though they supposedly were “cleared” before their release and were not thought to be dangerous. They did not care very much that we “trusted” them not to commit more terrorist acts.
Yet the Obama administration still seems determined to send some of the enemy combatants now held securely at Gitmo to other nations, where they might easily plot fresh attacks.
Some of the combatants were recently sent to their home country of Yemen. Some al-Qaida operatives based there ordered the nearly successful Christmas Day bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner. And other serious troublemakers were slated to be shipped back to Yemen until President Barack Obama, bowing to pressure from even some of his fellow Democrats, said Yemen will not get any more Gitmo detainees — for now.
That’s a good first step, but where does Mr. Obama propose to send the detainees, since he opposes keeping them at Gitmo? Alarmingly, the prisoners may wind up in the United States!
“White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the government will not send additional detainees to Yemen for now, which could increase the number of inmates held at a planned prison for terror suspects in Illinois,” The Associated Press reported.
So the administration considers the prisoners in question too dangerous to risk sending them back to far-away Yemen, yet it thinks an appropriate alternative is to bring them to the U.S. mainland.
That makes no sense.
The more we learn about how the president wants to deal with the enemy combatants — now held at Gitmo safely and without the ability to threaten the American people — the clearer it becomes that Mr. Obama’s plan to close Gitmo is unwise and downright dangerous.