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The town councilors of Hardin, MT think their brand new but empty prison would a great place to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay, if and when President Obama succeeds in closing the notorious military detention camp. But Montana’s congressional delegation, apparently responding to sharper-than-expected opposition to housing terrorist suspects on U.S. soil, has come down firmly against the idea. That in turn has prompted New York Times columnist Gail Collins (pictured at right) to wonder, when did Montanans become such a bunch of wimps? She notes, quite fairly, that New Yorkers live with terrorists all the time. Here’s one riposte to that idea, from Big Sky resident Betsey Weltner. What do you think? Guantanamo prisoners in Hardin, or not?
Friday, May 24, 2013
What's New in the New West
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C’mon now–the gal pictured is just a shill for that post by Sarah Palin? Right?
We don’t give a damn what they think in New York City.
The hysteria generated by the possibility of moving terrorists to maximum security prisons in the U.S. is down right silly. Apparently, the BANANA-NIMBY(Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody and especially Not In My Backyard!) instinct in human sheep overpowers whatever reasoning ability human sheep have.
Isn’t it illegal to detain prisoners in the U.S. without filing charges and allowing for due process? Isn’t that why we have Gitmo and all of the secret CIA prisons floating around in the various oceans? Not that I condone any of this manufactured “War on Terror”, but aren’t they at least trying to pretend like the Constitution and freedom still exist?!
baucus is a wimp and tester just does what max tells him to. i see no problem with housing them at the prison in hardin as long as the folks in hardin want it. god knows they need the jobs. have any of the big town montanans travelled to small town montana lately? pretty scary how many businesses have closed in the past year and i am concerned about how much has dried up out there job-wise. we need to help our small towns survive.
Exactly.
What an idiot. It isn’t a matter of being afraid. It’s a matter of not being morons. Montanans are simply not as moronic as the author, who apparently is a New Yorker. Her insinuation that New Yorkers are wimps after being savagely attacked shouldn’t go unnoticed. Her comments disgrace those survivors who’s lives have been affected by terrorism and defamed the memory of those who lost their lives as a result of the same. Terrorists, suspected terrorists, and war criminals should not be housed on American soil and certainly shouldn’t be given the same rights as United States citizens. As a Montanan, I’d like to send out a big F.Y. to Gail Collins on behalf of Montanans and “wimps” everywhere.
Well said Montana007. Just wait until the trial lawyers get involved in this quaigmire once it all gets moved here. our judicial system, while still the best out there, is flawed to the point that with slick lawyers, actual terrorists could certainly end up turned loose on technicalities and here on US soil. I can see the circus now…OJ will look like small potatoes. Guantanamo is a necessity, BUT, they need to clean up their act there and behave like we would expect them to if they were operating here.
If people don’t like that, then send them back and try them under the same rules a suspected terrorist would face in their own country. Why don’t we do that anyway. Then the need for Guantanamo or trials here goes away.
Hell Yes let’s lock those terrorists up right here in Montana!
We know justice. We know our guns. No better place in all the world to put extremists on lock down.
There’s no way one of those terrorists would escape, and if they did, well the boys ’round here would round them up, I mean heck, I ain’t racist in anyway (I love all God’s children), but take a look around, anybody that ain’t white around here, well then I know them by name. An escaped middle eastern terrorist ain’t going to blend in on the streets of Hardin.
Besides, the jail needs the inmates, the guards need the job. Were proud of our American justice system, facilities and personnel.
With all the guns now being carried around by rightwingcrazies, there is no way in hell any damned raghead would dare escape from the new rentacell at Hardin…
I dont know about you …BUT….I am not comfortable at ALL with the Boogey Man being housed in our state. Next thing you know Gog and Magog will be movin down the root…!!
Does anyone have any idea how expensive it is to run a military prison on a foreign island? I bet it would be a heck of a lot cheaper to house those inmates in Colorado or Montana. As astute observers of the rural Montana landscape have stated above, in the event one or even a group of foreign terrorists escapes- what are they going to do? They certainly won’t be able to blend in and disappear. If they escape between October and May they’ll likely die within 48 hours of exposure to wind and cold if the cowboys don’t find them first. What would the people of Hardin rather house? 250 foreign terrorists or 250 American-made child molesters?
So if there really is an empty prison in Montana, why hasn’t someone figured out how to use it to hold prisoners from other states for a fee in order to stimulate Montana’s economy?