In January, in one of his first official acts, President Obama signed an executive order closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by January 22, 2010. Since then, there’s been substantial discussion about just what to do with those detainees, and where to try them for suspected terrorist activity.
This discussion has focused on several locations including the jail and federal courthouse in Alexandria, where the “Twentieth Hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui was tried. Rep. Jim Moran, D-VA, has signaled to Obama that, should the administration decide to move as many as 250 detainees to Alexandria, it would meet no resistance from the local congressman.
Those of us who remember the logistical nightmare and security risk — complete with street barricades and snipers on the rooftops – that accompanied the six-year-long incarceration and trial of Moussaoui should be outraged that Moran is willing to volunteer his constituents to continue bearing this burden, perhaps indefinitely.
The neighborhood surrounding the jail and courthouse is a densely populated urban area that includes the U.S. Patent Office, high rise apartments, restaurants, and hotels, not to mention being just a stone’s throw from Old Town and our nation’s capital.
At Guantanamo, there is an average of eight attacks per day on the guards. While we can have reasonable discussions about the rights of the terror suspects, there is no question that this population includes dangerous and violent people who have no place in such close proximity to innocent and law-abiding citizens.
The safety of the detainees is also a problem. The Alexandria City Sheriff had to clear out an entire wing of the prison to prevent Alexandria inmates from harming Moussaoui. It stands to reason that the same accommodations would be needed for some or all of the detainees transplanted from Guantanamo.
It isn’t that there are no other options. In fact, the city of Hardin, Montana is lobbying the federal government to move the detainees to Hardin’s 464-bed prison facility currently sitting empty in a sparsely populated area. This isn’t about self-serving “not in my backyard” resistance; it’s about doing what makes sense.
So why is Moran volunteering downtown Alexandria rather than impressing upon the federal government the injustice this would be to Alexandria’s citizens, and making the case for other solutions? Why is it that Alexandria residents must now rely on congressmen representing other districts – not our own — to suggest Gitmo prisoners move to a domestic military base or rural prison site?
Moran has even scolded his constituents to meet their civic duty and deal with the complications of hosting as many as 250 terrorist trials in an Alexandria now more developed and more populated than when Moussaoui first arrived seven years ago. He also sent a clear message to the administration that if it wanted to move detainees to Alexandria, the district’s twenty-year member of Congress – an appropriator with considerable power over its budget — wouldn’t stand in the way.
That Moran chose to throw his own constituents to the wolves so publicly suggests an arrogance about his continued incumbency. Perhaps after 20 years in the high seat of Congress, Moran has forgotten whom he was elected to represent. If so, perhaps it’s time for the voters of Virginia’s Eighth District to remind him.
Tom Readmond is a public affairs consultant and a community activist who lives in Virginia’s 8th district.
