The AP offers this key excerpt from FBI director Robert Mueller's Senate testimony today in which he raised concerns about imprisoning Guantanamo detainees on U.S. soil:
The concerns we have about individuals who may support terrorism being in the United States run from concerns about providing financing, radicalizing others," Mueller said, as well as "the potential for individuals undertaking attacks in the United States."
News report suggest that Mueller's testimony has helped to embolde Democrats against relocating detainees in the U.S. But are these truly the best arguments that can be mustered? If you're worried about radicalization of other inmates, then just take care to limit the unsupervised contact these prisoners have their neighbors. Financing? Does a terror cell really need--or even want--a guy who's in prison to handle that? And the "potential" for attacks against America, it seems to me, is already well-established. We've been worrying about that for about 8 1/2 years now. Are we more likely to be attacked because some Gitmo guys are in a Colorado Supermax? Invading Iraq and torturing people wasn't reason enough?
The AP quote doesn't even do justice to how incoherent Mueller was. The man had trouble putting together a clear sentence. He was unbelievably unpersuasive and it really didn't suggest good things about his overall acumen. See for yourself here--Mueller pipes up about 40 seconds in:
--Michael Crowley