Montana town requests that U.S. government send 100 Gitmo detainees to its prison.

[Are_grits_groceries]

A frequent attack on the closure of Guantanamo is the claim that no one in the U.S. wants detainees housed in their backyard. Last Sunday, Dick Cheney remarked, “I don’t know a single congressional district in this country that is going to say, gee, great, they’re sending us 20 Al Qaida terrorists.” But Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reports that the town of Hardin, MT requesting that 100 detainees be sent to its empty prison:

Earlier this month, Hardin’s town council voted unanimously to offer the US government a deal: Send Hardin the detainees that most foreign countries and other cities the US are afraid to take.

“Why not us?” asks. “They’ve got to go somewhere.” He dismisses security concerns over housing inmates former Bush administration officials famously described as “the worst of the worst”. “We have some very hardened criminals in our own country that have committed some heinous crimes, and they are in communities all across this country,” Smith argues. <...>

He estimates at least 100 new jobs would come from filling the prison, a real boost to this small, beleaguered community. Smith describes the town’s quest to become a new penal colony as “a piece of the American dream.” “Like anything in America, we’re looking for opportunities,” he says.

http://thinkprogress.org/

After Gitmo, they'd think they had moved to the North Pole.

[Vinca]

1. A prison for the detainees would be an economic boon for a small community.

What's the difference between having these guys down the road or Charlie Manson?

[Echo In Light]

2. Manson was guilty, Afghani goat farmers (ironically being scapegoated) aren't

[Cid_B]

3. Supposedly...

The theory is that Manson doesn't have a significant number of people willing to show up and blow something up to get his release.