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SC AG: STATE COULD BECOME TERRORIST TARGET
South Carolina’s top law enforcement official made a trip to the Naval Brig in North Charleston Monday to see first hand the facility that could house suspected terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba military prison facility.
Attorney General Henry McMaster spent more than two hours touring the Naval Brig and vowed to do whatever necessary to make sure the facility was secure and that South Carolinians would be afe if the White House decides to move the detainees here. But McMaster hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
“Every base in the country is surrounded to some extent by soft civilian targets,” McMaster said. “Terrorists as we know will not attack a hardened target. They will attack the surrounding civilian populations. Bringing enemy combatants to our shores is a mistake.”
The Obama Administration ordered the Guantanamo facility closed by January 2010 and has been eying the Charleston facility for months. McMaster, who is running for governor, has taken the lead in the fight to keep terrorists out of South Carolina.
“Congress should have taken action on this issue long ago,” McMaster said earlier this month. “National security is a federal issue.”
One Congressman with the ability to do something, Gresham Barrett, passed the buck on his responsibility to keep the detainees off U.S. soil. Rather than taking action, Barrett asked his fellow candidates for governor to sign a letter to President Barack Obama asking the White House not to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to the state.
Barrett has also failed to visit the Naval Brig.
Hey Scoop –
What a bunch of garbage. McMaster is once again posturing for the press, posing for the cameras and not doing one real thing to solve the problem.
Meanwhile, Barrett has been working hard to stop the terrorists from coming to SC. Check out his piece from the sun news…
http://www.thesunnews.com/opinion/story/1186801.html
On Jan. 22, the day President Obama signed an executive order to close Gitmo, I vowed to “do everything I can to make certain that the terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay do not set foot on American soil.” As a father, husband and congressman, I was deeply concerned by the distinct possibility that the president would transfer these terrorists to the Naval Brig in North Charleston.
Recognizing the security threat such a move would pose to the citizens of our state, I immediately went to work with my colleagues in the U.S. House to offer legislation prohibiting such a transfer. I co-sponsored Congressman Henry Brown’s bill, H.R. 565, which would prohibit the use of funds to transfer anyone currently held at Gitmo to the Naval Brig in North Charleston. Additionally, I co-sponsored the Keep Terrorists Out of America Act, which would require the administration to first seek permission of state governors and legislatures before transferring one single terrorist to their respective states. Unfortunately, congressional Democrats refused to bring our bills to the House floor for a vote.
Over the following months, I continued to monitor the situation closely.
In late October, the seriousness of the situation escalated dramatically. I received word from congressional sources and news reports that the Obama administration had conducted an inspection of the Naval brig earlier this fall.
The purpose of the evaluation was to determine whether it is a viable option to house transferred terrorists from Guantanamo Bay in North Charleston, and whether military tribunals could be conducted at a nearby National Guard facility. I also learned that members of a Guantanamo Bay Closure Task Force are citing the brig as their leading option to house transferred terrorists because a U.S. citizen who was captured on American soil for terrorist activity was detained there. That is an important distinction since the individuals held at Gitmo are not citizens. Moving them to our country would require another executive order to circumvent immigration law.
Resolved to the fact that congressional Democrats would continue to block our legislative remedies, I determined that it was necessary to seek alternative avenues for preventing this possible threat from becoming a reality. To that end, I decided we needed to involve the governor.
I spoke with him directly and urged him to do everything within his power, including pursuing legal action if necessary, to make certain no terrorists enter our state. He was very responsive, and I am confident he will take steps at the state level to prevent the terrorist transfer Obama is considering.
I then asked our congressional delegation to set partisanship aside and join me in signing a letter to the president informing him that we believe any plan to move terrorists to South Carolina is irresponsible, ill-advised and that we will oppose it vigorously. I was honored to have Sen. Jim DeMint, Congressman Henry Brown and Congressman Joe Wilson co-sign the letter with me.
I asked my fellow gubernatorial candidates to sign a similar letter in an attempt to highlight awareness of the issue and to show the Obama administration that opposition in South Carolina is deep and will be manifest in not only this gubernatorial administration, but the next one as well. Some of the candidates seeking the governor’s office chose not to sign the letter, and while I respect their position, I am concerned that they fail to recognize the serious nature of the security threat posed by transferring terrorists to our state.
The situation escalated even further when it was announced that five Gitmo terrorists would be tried in open courts in New York City. I am sure there are some who will continue to criticize me for being out front on this issue. But, as someone who spent nearly five years in the Army defending our national security, I am not going to apologize for raising the alarm. Vigorously opposing this plan now will either create hesitation in the Obama administration or begin to build the kind of public opposition here in South Carolina that it will take to change their minds about taking this ill-advised security risk.
[...] surrounded to some extent by soft civilian targets,” State Attorney General Henry McMaster said during a visit to the Charleston facility last month. “Terrorists as we know will not attack a hardened target. [...]