President Obama is expected to announce this week his plans for relocating Gitmo terrorists, prompting 40 local sheriffs to issue a letter to the Democrat warning that Colorado would not be a secure choice.
The sheriffs did not question the ability of the prisons to keep the terrorists locked up, but expressed legitimate concerns that the jails would become irresistible targets for radical sympathizers upon which to mount an attack from the outside.
“We believe it would be dangerously naive not to recognize that a civilian prison with an untold number of enemy combatant inmates, located in our state, would provide a very tempting target for anyone wishing to either free these detainees or simply wishing to make a political statement,” the sheriffs wrote.
We agree.
The Pentagon has scouted out supermax in Florence, and the state pen in Canon City, as well as a prison in Kansas and in South Carolina.
Moving terrorists to jails near the densely-populated areas of Pueblo and Colorado Springs, and the U.S. Air Force Academy, Peterson Air Force Base, Buckley Air Force Base, Fort Carson, and the U.S. Army’s Chemical Weapons Depot, is a terrible idea.
Congress thinks it’s a lousy idea to relocate terrorists anywhere in the U.S. and passed legislation this week banning such a move.
If the president makes an end-run around Congress through executive action to move these terrorist to the U.S., one of these prisons will make for a very tempting target.
We hope we are not in the bullseye.