With the Senate getting all the press the last couple of days, Representative Scott Garrett and the Republican delegation decided to put together a letter to President Obama. Their cause, no Gitmo detainees transferred to New Jersey. From the Courier Post:
The letter also chides Obama for not spelling out what he would do with the prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when the holding facility in the base is closed in a year as per a Jan. 22 executive order from Obama.What's conveniently left out of the press stories (the Express Times picked this up as well), and one has to assume the letter, is that New Jersey doesn't have a maximum security facility in the state.
"We are concerned this could result in the detainment of the terrorists at facilities within the United States. As such, we request you not send any of the Guantanamo Bay detainees to the State of New Jersey," the congressmen wrote, citing legal and security problems associated with such a move and the "understaffed and under-funded" federal prison system in the state.
It's unlikely, should they come, that these guys would be transferred into a rinky dink holding facility while they await trial. And should they be convicted, they'd be shipped to a special little corner of Colorado called the ADX, which was featured on 60 Minutes.
Other than to get a couple press stories (check) and a blog post or two (check), I can't really understand the point of what definitely seems to be a partisan letter writing campaign. Granted, we can't say for certain they won't end up here, along with the jobs needed to upgrade facilities to house them, but the Republican delegation has got to have better things they can spend their time on.
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