COMMENTARY: Folks in Florence were never afraid before

As the Fremont County correspondent for the Pueblo Chieftain, I covered the first public meeting held by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1989 for a proposal to build the nation's newest, biggest and most secure federal prison in Florence, Colo.

[Border Native-American]

Leave them at Gitmo. There is absolutely no need to move them, except for Democrat political nonsense. Talk about a waste of money.

[Thomas F Schraad]

Border Native-American wrote:

Leave them at Gitmo. There is absolutely no need to move them, except for Democrat political nonsense. Talk about a waste of money.

Border Native-American is right. Security has been good at Gitmo. Why spend 80 million to close it down.

[Fear This]

Folks in Florence were never afraid before, but the Republican Party's two-prong platform, to instill fear as a constant factor in every American's life, while tearing down our institutions (including the Republican propaganda that our federal prisons are no longer capable of holding dangerous prisoners in spite of the fact that there is NO evidence for this conclusion) has had a powerful effect of the once-strong American psyche.

Republicans want to make every American a psychological weakling...because that way we'll be glad to give up our freedom to a tiny corporate dictatorship.

[Independent]

Fear This wrote:

Folks in Florence were never afraid before, but the Republican Party's two-prong platform, to instill fear as a constant factor in every American's life, while tearing down our institutions (including the Republican propaganda that our federal prisons are no longer capable of holding dangerous prisoners in spite of the fact that there is NO evidence for this conclusion) has had a powerful effect of the once-strong American psyche.
Republicans want to make every American a psychological weakling...because that way we'll be glad to give up our freedom to a tiny corporate dictatorship.

Foolhardy talk from an ignorant person is what this is. This issue is not about whether or not a “supermax” prison can hold these terrorists. This issue should be whether or not the occupants of “gitmo” are criminals or prisoners or war. As POWs, it is against the Geneva Convention to house them in a penitentiary. If Barak Obama moves them to a U. S. Federal Prison he must reclassify them as criminals and try them in a civilian court of law.

You may ask “what is wrong with that?” Under civilian law, we had no jurisdiction to apprehend and remove them. Only under the international laws of warfare were we legal in doing this.