Wolf blasts plan to move detainees to Alexandria
By: David Sherfinski
Examiner Staff Writer
April 24, 2009
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U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sparred Thursday over the politically explosive issue of transferring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Alexandria.
“It is baffling to me that the option of transferring detainees to federal court sites in urban areas such as Alexandria would even be considered,” Wolf said during a hearing of the House subcommittee on commerce, justice and science.
“This is an issue that I care deeply about, and I’m not going to let it go,” he said later in the hearing. “Where you hold these people is very, very important. If they’re in Alexandria or an urban area, that’s not very good.”
The Obama administration has suggested that some of the detainees suspected of terrorism now held at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, might be tried in federal court in Alexandria.
Holder said that no decisions have been made yet on where potential trials would occur, but agreed that the issue was indeed important.
“We are not naive,” Holder said, adding that the administration knows the kind of people it’s dealing with and would take into account the dangers the detainees present to communities.
“We have to be sensitive to that,” Holder said, adding that the issue was a “primary concern that we will have.”
Wolf told Holder he should go to Alexandria and look at the area surrounding the courthouse.
“I went to Alexandria this past Tuesday and saw for myself the proximity to the federal courthouse of the Westin Hotel and the Patent and Trademark Office, both high-pedestrian-traffic areas,” Wolf said. “There is also a Metro station nearby as well as an apartment complex and major vehicle routes.”
Wolf helped introduce legislation last month that would prohibit Guantanamo Bay prisoners from being transferred to federal prisons or military bases in the commonwealth.
Kirk S. Lippold, the commander of the USS Cole when it was attacked by terrorists in 2000, recently met with Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille to discuss the matter as well.
“Terrorists should not be housed and tried in the dense urban environment of Alexandria,” Lippold said. “It defies common sense.”
