July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Call it legislative silliness (02/07/2009)
Editorial
This is silly.
That's the inescapable conclusion when one considers the posturing by members of the Indiana House of Representatives - including the usually sensible Bill Davis - over a resolution telling the federal government that Indiana doesn't want prisoners from Guantanamo housed at the federal prison in Terre Haute.
Even those involved acknowledge that the resolution is meaningless.
State legislatures are not in a position to tell the federal government what to do, and all such resolutions passed by the legislature have no force as law.
But even by the standards of empty gestures, this one is pretty silly.
The federal prison in Terre Haute holds within its walls some pretty bad actors. That's why they're in prison.
Based upon the prison's track record, one can assume the corrections authorities are capable of handling a few more bad guys.
Clearly, the U.S. government has a problem on its hands finding the right place to put the 240 or so displaced prisoners from Guantanamo. In some cases, they may be sent back to their home countries. But that won't work for all of them.
Consider the case of one Uzbek now at Guantanamo who has been cleared by U.S. authorities of any wrongdoing. He's just a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But if he's sent back to Uzbekistan, where an iron-fisted dictator rules and torture is commonplace, he'll be facing a death sentence.
And he's not alone. There are others who were swept up and taken to Guantanamo who have been cleared by the U.S. and now reside in limbo.
Other countries may eventually step up to the plate and offer to help unwind the problem, but plenty of diplomatic bridges were burned over Guantanamo and it's going to take some time and some convincing to get those countries involved.
In the meantime, the federal government - dealing with what is, after all, a national problem - will do what it has to do.
And if that means some of the prisoners end up in federal prison in Terre Haute, then that's what will happen, regardless of the posturing and speech-making in Indianapolis. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]
That's the inescapable conclusion when one considers the posturing by members of the Indiana House of Representatives - including the usually sensible Bill Davis - over a resolution telling the federal government that Indiana doesn't want prisoners from Guantanamo housed at the federal prison in Terre Haute.
Even those involved acknowledge that the resolution is meaningless.
State legislatures are not in a position to tell the federal government what to do, and all such resolutions passed by the legislature have no force as law.
But even by the standards of empty gestures, this one is pretty silly.
The federal prison in Terre Haute holds within its walls some pretty bad actors. That's why they're in prison.
Based upon the prison's track record, one can assume the corrections authorities are capable of handling a few more bad guys.
Clearly, the U.S. government has a problem on its hands finding the right place to put the 240 or so displaced prisoners from Guantanamo. In some cases, they may be sent back to their home countries. But that won't work for all of them.
Consider the case of one Uzbek now at Guantanamo who has been cleared by U.S. authorities of any wrongdoing. He's just a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But if he's sent back to Uzbekistan, where an iron-fisted dictator rules and torture is commonplace, he'll be facing a death sentence.
And he's not alone. There are others who were swept up and taken to Guantanamo who have been cleared by the U.S. and now reside in limbo.
Other countries may eventually step up to the plate and offer to help unwind the problem, but plenty of diplomatic bridges were burned over Guantanamo and it's going to take some time and some convincing to get those countries involved.
In the meantime, the federal government - dealing with what is, after all, a national problem - will do what it has to do.
And if that means some of the prisoners end up in federal prison in Terre Haute, then that's what will happen, regardless of the posturing and speech-making in Indianapolis. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]
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