The new Republican effort to gin up panic around the possibility of terrorists being imprisoned on American soil isn't remotely honest. For starters, there are a number of convicted terrorists whom we've already imprisoned here, notable names include Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted in connection with the 9/11 attacks, shoe-bomber Richard Reid, Jose Padilla, and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. For some reason, the GOP isn't introducing legislation to have them exported elsewhere.
But if these same Republicans were genuinely concerned about the safety of locking up terrorists here, there would have been an absolute uproar over the trial of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who was held without charges for six years in South Carolina and who recently plead guilty to conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. Yet during his trial, those currently attempting to forment panic over the possible imprisonment of terrorists in the United States were completely, and entirely, silent. If people like al-Marri really represented the kind of danger the GOP claims, they would have said something; they didn't, because al-Marri was never held at Gitmo, which makes him useless as political ammunition.
America's maximum and supermax prisons are more than adequate for holding terrorists. They're not "holy warriors," they're not supervillains, and they shouldn't be exalted as such. They're criminals. They should be treated like criminals.
-- A. Serwer
