Other Town Halls, Other Fears: Weekend Liberties Wrap

Often, when lawmakers express opposition to relocating any Guantanamo detainees to prisons in their districts, they cite their constituents’ concerns.  After all, no one wants to be the Congressperson or Senator or Governor who brings alleged terrorists into their state or district over the objections of the voters.

But the story of Dave Munson, a tavern owner in Standish, Michigan, puts an interesting new wrinkle in that narrative.  He went to Washington in June to lobby lawmakers in favor of moving Gitmo detainees to the maximum-security prison in his town.  The prison is scheduled to close in October if it doesn’t get more inmates, and Munson felt this would be a good way to save the prison’s 300 jobs.  That is, until he met Michigan Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra:

“He told me things that really scared the heck out of me,” Munson said. “He told me about soft targets and safe zones, that if they came to this country they would have rights, visitors and friends would come who could be jihadists.”

And so, instead, Munson organized a town hall this week, attended by Hoekstra, several advocates against moving Gitmo detainees to U.S. prisons, and about 200 vocal Michigan residents, “many recruited from other parts of the state by the group Act! For America.”  There, fears were expressed and predictions made, that “detainees would assault and throw bodily fluids at guards, plan attacks on tourists and attract suicide bombers to local gatherings,” and that if they escaped they would make the 150-mile trip to Dearborn, home to a large Middle Eastern population, and “disappear.”

As far as I know, no one at the meeting asked Hoekstra – or any prison guards, at least one of whom was in attendance – what the hell is wrong with Michigan’s prison system that inmates would be a such risk of escaping, or that “jihadists” would be welcomed in to visit, presumably with a suicide vest baked in a cake.

I don’t mean to make light of the heart-felt concerns the residents of Standish may have.  But it’s worth noting that no “jihadists” have attacked any other town with a prison holding a Middle Eastern terrorist, nor have they attacked any place in the United States since the creation of the prison at Guantanamo Bay.  The idea that there a number of such jihadists who are just biding their time until we move some critical mass of detainees to a small town in the mainland United States seems, to put it mildly, a little outlandish.

And all these fears were introduced to Dave Munson, by a Congressman, in order to get him to change his mind about bringing Gitmo detainees to Michigan.  Perhaps Pete Hoekstra really believes that the transfer of detainees to Standish would make it a jihadist haven.  Perhaps Chuck Grassley really believes the House health reform bill would encourage doctors to kill old people.  Who knows?  But disingenuous or genuine, they sure seem intent on frightening their constituents.

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In other news…

- A Marine general says two-thirds of the detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan pose no threat to the U.S. and should be released.  They could tell you that themselves, if they were allowed habeas corpus hearings.

- After a FOIA request from the ACLU uncovered a previously unreported death in an immigrant detention center, the Obama administration undertook a review and found 10 overlooked deaths – and disclosed one that happened just last Friday.  That means more than 1 in 10 deaths in immigrant detention in the last six years have gone unreported, highlighting the serious problems in medical care and detainee welfare in the immigration system.

- Here’s a weird one: the Justice Department is looking into whether military defense lawyers at Guantanamo broke laws protecting classified information by showing photographs of CIA officers to their clients.  The idea, apparently, was to identify interrogators who may have tortured their clients.  But, given that these lawyers don’t have access to classified information, one wonders how they would reveal it.  Here’s how the Washington Post describes the process of getting these photographs:

Tracking international CIA-chartered flights, researchers have identified hotels in Europe where CIA personnel or contractors stayed. In some cases, through hotel phone records, they have been able to identify agency employees who jeopardized their cover by dialing numbers in the United States. Working from these lists, some of which include up to 45 names, researchers photographed agency workers and obtained other photos from public records, the sources said.

Sneaky, a bit cloak-and-dagger…but illegal?  We shall see.  ACLU head Anthony Romero thinks it’s perverse to be investigating military defense lawyers for showing photos of CIA officers, instead of investigating CIA officers for alleged torture.

- Speaking of investigating CIA employees for torture, the long awaited less-redacted version of the 2004 CIA inspector general’s report could finally be released as early as Monday.  This is the report that Attorney General Eric Holder says “sickened” him and pushed him toward appointing a special torture prosecutor.  Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball at Newsweek say it will reveal that the CIA performed mock executions as part of its interrogations, among other things.  Not known, as Rachel Maddow noted to Isikoff on her show Friday evening, is whether the report will say anything about the dozens of detainees believed to have died in custody.