A reenactment of Custer's last stand in Hardin, Mont., where the death of Lt. Col. George Custer and some 200 members of the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, is faithfully replayed. (Photo by Beth A. Keiser / AP)
by Mark Silva
Montana has a home where the terrorists can roam.
For all the "NIMBY" worries about what will happen to some 250 dangerous detainees once the Obama administration closes the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the good people of Hardin, Montana, are ready to open their doors.
Their jailhouse doors.
As Matthew Brown tells the tale for the Associated Press, the impoverished town on the Northern Plains, Pop. 3,400, is "so desperate that it built a $27 million jail a couple of years ago in the vain hope it would be a moneymaker.''
This is not the sort of federal "super-max'' in which President Barack Obama boasts that no one has ever busted free. This is a medium-securityllockup conceived as a holding facility for drunks and other scofflaws. But the town's fathers say they could beef it up with a couple of guard towers and more concertina wire. It has 88 cameras.
"Holy smokes -- the amount of soldiers and attorneys it would bring here would be unbelievable," says Clint Carleton, surveying his nearly empty restaurant, Three Brothers Pizza. "I'm a lot more worried about some sex offender walking my streets than a guy that's a world-class terrorist. He's not going to escape, pop into the IGA (supermarket), grab a six-pack and go sit in the park."
Yet, after Hardin's six-member town council passed a resolution last month laying out a welcome mat for Guantanamo's detainees, Montana's congressional delegation was quick to pledge that it would never happen, Brown notes.
"These Gitmo guys, they're a scary bunch," says Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat. "You've got to realize what you're getting into."
Democratic Sen. Max Baucus echoes the sentiment: "'We're not going to bring al Qaeda to Big Sky Country -- no way, not on my watch.''
Comments
It cracks me up how the Republican deadenders wet their pants with fake outrage so easily.
If there's one thing this country does better than any country in the world it's imprison people.
Just ask Charles Manson, the Unabomber or Timothy McVeigh's pal, Terry Nichols:
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Nichols
Posted by: Lithium | May 29, 2009 4:42 PM
Don't the people of Hardin understnnd how thoroughly terrified of the terrorists the Repunlicans are? The cowardly Republicans are convinced that the terrorists are supermen that no prison could possibly hold. They are convinced that the terrorists are certainly superior to any security a lowly american could design. They lay awake at night worrying about the terrorist bogeymen busting out of a federal supermax prison, through multiple fences, security systems, and armed guards. They know the terrorists will always be stonger and faster than any american. Be afraid, be very afraid!!!!!!!
Posted by: Nel | May 29, 2009 5:05 PM
The AP's Matthew Brown as well as the rest of the national press corps missed the real story at Hardin.
The Texas hucksters who gulled the town officials to issue the bonds to vastly overpay for it have made their millions.
Greg Smith, the economic development coordinator who inherited this mess continuously trashes Governor Schweitzer, who also was not responsible for building this impractical collection of clapped together, minimum security dormitories, has tried earnestly to bail the city out of its own foolishness.
Meanwhile Smith feels that the Music Men are his friends. They've gone off in the sunset with their millions, to tune of "76 Trombones."
Perhaps one day a real reporter (are there any left?) will dig a bit deeper, as the story deserves.
Posted by: Frank | May 29, 2009 10:13 PM
I'm all for sending terrorists to Harden for prison time.
When they start acting up,
(in february) simply turn off the heat till March.
That ought to do it.
Posted by: jerry strain | May 30, 2009 1:59 AM