Assemblywoman Diane Harkey put forth a resolution back in February to keep ex-Guantanamo detainees out of Camp Pendleton. With Barack Obama set to close the notorious, quasi-constitutional prison some time next year, Harkey wants to make sure the administration doesn't even think about putting any of the maybe-terrorists in her district's military base.
Last week, she explained her reasoning to the Sacramento Statehouse Examiner:
“It is very, very important that they are in
maximum security and not available to just walk out–walk away or to
somehow cause a terrorist accident somewhere; I mean Guantanamo was
surrounded by water,” she said.
Well-spoken, as always. She's concerned that terrorist suspects would be allowed to “walk away” from imprisonment on a military base. And who knows what kind of “terrorist accident” they could cause? Extremists are very clumsy.
Why should a restriction like this apply to Pendleton and not other military bases? Well, Harkey explains, it's a sensitive area. Big urban population. And, uh, there's that nuclear generating plant. Which, by the way, poses no threat to the surrounding urban population unless put into proximity with unshaven dudes weakened from five years of being locked on an island and occasionally smeared with fake menstrual blood.
Anyways, isn't this all a little provincial and fraidy-cat, Ms. Harkey?
When KPFA
asked the Assemblymember if it was fair to call the proposal a NIMBY
issue, NIMBY being an acronym for “Not in My Back Yard,” she responded,
“I'm not saying it's not a NIMBY issue. It is very much a NIMBY issue
when you've got millions of residents living in close proximity; it
needs to be a NIMBY issue. Those are things that need to be NIMBY.”
Fair enough! Camp Pendleton is the new Yucca Mountain. As will soon be, no doubt, every single military base in America once Obama and Eric Holder start announcing how they actually plan on decommissioning Guantanamo. Restoring the rule of law? Not in my back yard!
