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| A Prison With a View of a Lady With a Lamp |
| By nytimes.com |
| Published: 06/02/2009 |
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A Prison With a View of a Lady With a Lamp By CLYDE HABERMAN Bruce Tully was squiring out-of-town friends around New York, a tour that included a boat ride to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. This was 10 or 11 days ago, just as the dispute over the president’s plan to shut down the Guantánamo Bay prison camp put some American politicians in touch with their inner wimp. The spirit that won the West and conquered the Great Plains seemed to have gone AWOL. Transfer Guantánamo’s terror suspects to maximum-security prisons in the United States? No way, several leading national figures said. “We’re not going to bring Al Qaeda to Big Sky Country.” That was from Senator Max Baucus of Montana. Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska also turned his thumbs down. Put the prisoners somewhere else, anywhere else, but “I don’t want to see them come on American soil,” he said. Senator Barbara Boxer of California chimed in that her state had one maximum-security prison and that “it’s right now overbooked.” Mr. Tully, a former banker who lives in Manhattan (and is someone I’ve known for a few years), was struck by the lack of intestinal fortitude. We’re better than that in New York, he said. As he looked across Upper New York Bay from the Statue of Liberty, he could see Governors Island, a 172-acre chunk of real estate 800 yards off the southern tip of Manhattan. There it sits, largely unused except by the occasional polo-playing prince; young Harry of England starred there over the weekend. The city and the state have spent years trying in vain to figure out how to develop the island. Mr. Tully had an idea. Build a supermax prison there for the remaining 240 Guantánamo prisoners, he suggested, “and make it a showcase on how this country treats those who hate it most.” It’s an intriguing notion, not that it is likely to become reality in the lifetime of anyone reading this. Too many other interests eye Governors Island covetously, including universities and casino operators. That’s a tough crowd to beat, even for Al Qaeda. ALL the same, the prison issue underlines how much tougher New York has been than many other parts of the country when it comes to the terrorist threat. It may not be unique in this regard, but it is notably unwilling to yield to cries of “the boogeyman will get you,” like the one from Senator Baucus. Again and again, New Yorkers are told that they are the Cross Hairs of the World for Al Qaeda and its fellow travelers. They have been on orange alert seemingly forever. (Remember the Department of Homeland Security’s color scheme for fear?) Rarely does anyone pay attention to it. New York has had more than its fair share of terrorists in local jails and courthouses, but no one gets hysterical. Calls to be afraid tend to land with a thud. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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