Can of Worms

So Obama's going to close Guantanamo Bay.

Good news I hear those big-hearted liberals say- those poor enemy combatants, held for years against their will so that they couldn't return to the battlefield and once again take up arms against America and her allies. Boo hoo.

Well, now that Obama's won he's planning on letting them out of Gitmo- and into America!

President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice. …

Under plans being put together in Obama’s camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.

A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren’t final.

And how many of these cases- do you suppose- will result in conviction in a criminal court? Let's not forget that these men were not arrested by police, read their rights and then extensive evidence collected. They were captured by soldiers during a time of war. They can claim their rights were violated by their capture, removal to Gitmo, being held without trial, their questioning, etc, etc. How much of that is going to get past a criminal court and still result in a conviction?

And those he's planning on releasing? Well, how many are going to claim that it isn't safe for them to return to their country of origin- how many are going to demand to be allowed to stay in the United States? If they are allowed to stay- what are they going to do then?

The war against Al Qaeda and associated jihadist groups still rages- and yet Barack Obama thinks it's a good idea to release these people? Would he have thought it a good idea to release Nazi prisoners of war before 1945- because, in effect, that is what's happening.

One last point- they're going to be taken to prisons on the US mainland (presumably). Won't that make these locations something of a target for their cohorts?