The detainees probably can be safely housed on domestic soil, but why take the risk?
What’s more: The facilities that are required already exist here in Cuba. Camps 5 and 6–the maximum and medium security facilities that house detainees who refuse to be compliant–were modeled after existing correctional facilities in the Midwest. Both camps (like the rest of Guantánamo) are maintained in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. These camps have more than enough capacity to continue to hold the detainees the Obama administration now wants to transfer to the United States. And even Attorney General Eric Holder conceded after visiting the camps earlier this year that Guantánamo is “well-run” with no sign of detainee mistreatment. Why, then, is the Obama administration determined to close Guantánamo and reinvent the wheel in Thomson, Illinois? The answer has everything to do with anachronistic perceptions and an anti-military mythology that dates from the four months when Camp X-Ray was operational. … Even though this was a difficult process, the intelligence that was c
