Many Republicans and some Democrats have voiced objections to housing suspected terrorists on American soil. It’s not really clear what the source of the objection is–as Atrios wrote a while ago, we’re not discussing “actual supervillains with special powers.”
Obviously the GOP might feel like there are political points to be scored here in arguing that holding suspected terrorists here poses an untenable security risk, but there’s no evidence of that, we already hold a number of convicted terrorists in American prisons.
It also looks like the fearmongering might be surmounted by local economic concerns. At least one town in Montana wants to house Gitmo prisoners, because they currently have a detention center that is sitting empty and not providing the jobs it was meant to. The town’s city council recently voted to approve efforts to secure a contract to hold former Gitmo detainees at the facility:
The council resolution states that the city “fully supports the efforts of the Two Rivers Authority to contact State and Federal officials for the purpose of inquiring into the possibility of housing Guantanamo detainees at the Two Rivers Authority in Hardin, Montana, and to determine whether the Two Rivers Detention Center could provide a safe and secure environment for housing said detainees.”
I think that ultimately, the economic concerns of constituencies like Hardin are likely to trump political grandstanding over Gitmo’s closure.Â
