Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Indiana Lawmakers NIMBY Response To Obama On GITMO Terrorists

President Barack Obama's decision to close the Guantanimo Bay detention facility for terrorist suspects in a year has given birth to a resolution in the Indiana legislature directing Obama not to send any terrorists to Indiana. Sen. Marlin Stutzman, the author of the resolution, focuses on Terre Haute's federal prison as a possible detainment facility, but I suspect Camp Atterbury is a more likely site for such a facility. The Star's Dan McFeely reports on Sen. Stutzman's resolution:

The federal prison in Terre Haute is no place for accused terrorists, says an Indiana lawmaker who proposed a resolution this morning to keep prisoners in Cuba from being transferred to Indiana once Guantanamo Bay is closed by President Barack Obama.

State Sen. Marlin Stutzman, R-Howe, is urging the Obama administration to keep the 240 terrorist inmates currently being held at Gitmo out of Indiana’s federal prison . . .

According to Stutzman, federal officials have said most detainees will return to Yemen, their home country. However, for the rest of the inmates more than half are considered too much of a threat to be released from U.S. custody.

Stutzman's biggest fear: Records show that about 18 former detainees who were released returned to terrorism and 43 are suspected of having done so, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency.

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