Brownback on Gitmo

Sam Brownback held a conference call for bloggers about his recent trip to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and the effort of the Obama administration to close it.

Brownback called it one of the nicest prisons he’s ever seen, and one uniquely designed for its mission.  He called it a “well-run, professional” prison and that the detainees are getting very humane treatment.  Brownback said, “I don’t know where you could duplicate this facility,” and that is the crux of his concern.

The Senator said the problem the US faces is not containing the detainees in US facilities, but in securing the area around the prisons from terrorist actions.  Leavenworth in his home state gets suggested often for housing terrorist detainees, but while it could secure the terrorists, the civilian population around it would be vulnerable to attack for publicity by the terrorist organizations at war with the US.

Brownback also questioned the cost involved in replicating the Gitmo facility anywhere else in the world, including the US.  It would take hundreds of millions of dollars, which we don’t have at the moment.  The process of moving people would delay their trials or tribunals, as well.  It will also not address the real objections from others, which is not Gitmo itself, but the fact that we detain these people at all.  The only way to pander to the anti-American sentiment would be to set all the detainees free.

Questions:

• Wouldn’t moving the detainees would allow them to spread their radical Islam among the general prison population or force them into solitary confinement, which is more harsh than they have now? — Yes, and moving them into general populations would violate the Geneva Conventions as well.
• Does the new polling showing majority opposition to closing Gitmo spring from the Obama administrations efforts to close it? — Brownback demurred from analyzing that, but it shows clearly that Obama is out of step with the American public.
• Is the administration still pushing the notion of other nations taking detainees?  — Not since the Europeans rejected the idea out of hand.
• Will Congress authorize the funds to close Gitmo if Obama doesn’t have firm plans? — No way.  They’re running out of time, and they haven’t even begun proposing alternate sites.  They needed to keep the military tribunals going in order to meet the 1-year goal.
• Have you read or seen Obama’s Cairo speech? — Not yet, but Brownback attended a symposium on the two-state solution, and says it’s time to admit that the policy doesn’t work.  The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza produced a terror state, and the same thing would happen in the West Bank.  It’s time to get Egypt and Jordan to get back into those territories and provide legitimate governance.
• Follow-up — Calling Iran’s nuclear aspirations “legitimate” was “the heighth of irresponsibility” by Obama.  He also questioned whether “the Obama administration lifted one finger” to keep North Korea from testing its nuclear device and launching its missiles.  “The world is safer when America stands strong around the world.”
• Do you get the sense that Obama would rather let foreign policy slide? — No, but the Obama administration’s viewpoint is “terribly naive” in thinking that the problems around the world are America’s fault.

Blowback