Three prominent conservatives warned in a joint statement against Republican “scaremongering” on Guantanamo Bay detainees, saying the prison in Thomson, Illinois would be fine to handle them.
Former Republican Congressman and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, have teamed up to urge the Gitmo detainees be taken to the U.S.
“The scaremongering about these issues should stop,” Barr, Keene and Norquist wrote.
“Civilian federal courts are the proper forum for terrorism cases,” they wrote. “Civilian prisons are the safe, cost effective and appropriate venue to hold persons in federal courts.”
“Likewise the federal prison system has proven itself fully capable of safely holding literally hundreds of convicted terrorists with no threat or danger to the surrounding community,” they wrote. “We are confident that the government can preserve national security without resorting to sweeping and radical departures from an American constitutional tradition that has served us effectively for over two centuries.”
Read the full letter here.
