Bring’Em On

Word has spread that terrorism trials for Guantanamo Bay prisoners could take place in a new high-security courthouse in Newport News. This should give elected officials in Virginia another chance to demagogue the issue by declaring their adamant opposition to bringing terrorist suspects into the commonwealth.

Why the state's pols find it necessary to insult the professionalism and prowess of law-enforcement and security personnel by insisting terrorist prisoners be kept as far from Virginia as possible is a mystery. These would not be the first high-profile trials of dangerous suspects by a long stretch. An Alexandria court hosted 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui for part of his journey through the justice system. Virginia courts processed the Beltway snipers -- not to mention countless gang members whose associates could have mounted an assault on court buildings just as easily, if not more easily, than foreign jihadists.

To act as though the prisoners at Guantanamo are uniquely dangerous is silly. Virginian's political elite should take a page from the book of Gary Church, a resident in Standish, Mich., where folks say housing terrorist detainees in the nearby prison would be better than closing it. Regarding the possibility that imprisoning terrorists nearby might put local residents in danger, Church -- according to a news article -- "laughed at the idea."

So should the rest of us.