Why Are We Sending Terrorists Back Home?

June 15, 2009

I don’t get it. I’ve been trying to get it, but I can’t.

We are sending detainee terrorist suspects from Guantanamo prison to Bermuda, where they are being reclassified as foreign workers. I guess it’s something like a chambermaid, or a road repair person, or garbage man.

Others we are sending to the Pacific archipelago, Palau. We’re also sending more money to that government than the little country’s annual budget. Some might call that a bribe.

And then we reportedly are sending still more detainees to Saudi Arabia and Yemen. They’re supposed to go through some sort of deprogramming. Isn’t this like asking a Holocaust denier to be reprogrammed by Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Some of the 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Yemen is a hotbed for terrorists. The Saudis teach hatred of Jews and all things Western.

All of this is being done for political reasons and because no member of Congress wants any of these people in his or her state. What happens if even one of these people returns to jihad and kills Americans? Do you think the Obama administration will accept blame, or will they blame it on former president Bush like they do everything else? I don’t get it.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.