[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 74 (Thursday, May 14, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5459-S5461]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GUANTANAMO

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, last night we learned that the 
supplemental war spending bill the Senate will take up contains $80 
million to be used for closing Guantanamo. But the language of the bill 
acknowledges what Republicans have been saying for months: The 
administration has no plan to safely close this secure detention 
facility.
  Closing Guantanamo without a safe alternative would be irresponsible,

[[Page S5460]]

dangerous, and unacceptable to the American people. Americans are 
worried that closing Guantanamo by an arbitrary deadline won't keep 
them as safe as Guantanamo has. They are particularly worried about the 
administration's reported plan to transfer some detainees to detention 
facilities right here on American soil. State and local officials in 
places such as Louisiana, California, Virginia, and Missouri have been 
introducing resolutions to keep terrorists from coming to their 
communities.
  One look at the experience that Alexandria, right across the river 
here, had a few years ago during the trial of 9/11 conspirator 
Zacharias Moussaoui makes it easier to see why all these communities 
are so concerned. Moussaoui was just one terrorist. Yet the effect his 
presence had on the city of Alexandria was enough for the city's 
current mayor to state emphatically that he is absolutely opposed to 
relocating prisoners from Guantanamo to Alexandria. ``We had this 
experience,'' he said recently. ``Let someone else have it.''
  According to press accounts, housing Moussaoui turned parts of 
Alexandria into a virtual encampment. Every time he was moved to the 
courthouse, he was transferred in a heavily armed convoy that shut down 
traffic and locked down the surrounding community.
  One security expert recently told the Washington Post that housing 
detainees from Guantanamo would likely be even more complicated than it 
was for Moussaoui, with more locations for security personnel to cover 
and even more snipers.
  According to the same Post article, one of Moussaoui's lawyers said 
that bringing just two or three Guantanamo detainees to Alexandria 
would be a ``major headache.'' Alexandria's sheriff has warned that 
multiple detainees could ``overwhelm the system.''
  Based on the Moussaoui experience, local business owners in 
Alexandria also think the arrival of detainees from Guantanamo could be 
a serious drag on commerce. But even more worrisome for residents is 
the concern that housing detainees in Alexandria could invite terrorist 
attacks.
  I ask unanimous consent to have the Washington Post article I am 
referring to entitled ``Security Worries in the Suburbs, Possible Move 
of Terrorist Suspects to Alexandria for Trial Raises Outcry'' printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Mar. 25, 2009]

                    Security Worries in the Suburbs

                           (By Jerry Markon)

       An outcry is growing in Alexandria over a prospect no one 
     seems to like: terrorist suspects in the suburbs.
       The historic, vibrant community less than 10 miles from the 
     White House markets itself as a ``federal friendly zone.'' 
     But it has turned decidedly unfriendly to news that the Obama 
     administration might move some detainees from their highly 
     controlled military fortress at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to 
     Alexandria to stand trial at the federal courthouse.
       ``We would be absolutely opposed to relocating Guantanamo 
     prisoners to Alexandria,'' Mayor William D. Euille (D) said. 
     ``We would do everything in our power to lobby the president, 
     the governor, the Congress and everyone else to stop it. 
     We've had this experience, and it was unpleasant. Let someone 
     else have it.''
       The 2006 death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was 
     convicted of conspiring in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 
     2001, turned the neighborhood into a virtual encampment, with 
     heavily armed agents, rooftop snipers, bomb-sniffing dogs, 
     blocked streets, identification checks and a fleet of 
     television satellite trucks.
       President Obama has vowed to close Guantanamo by January, 
     and the government is reviewing files on the roughly 240 
     detainees. The administration has strongly indicated that 
     some will be transferred to federal courts, and a senior 
     Justice Department official recently named Alexandria, along 
     with Manhattan, as possible destinations.
       Alexandria Sheriff Dana A. Lawhorne, who operates the city 
     jail, said federal security requirements for housing suspects 
     could ``overwhelm the system'' if multiple detainees are 
     brought there.
       City officials and some legislators are concerned that 
     terror trials would take years, shut down roads and cost 
     millions and could invite attacks from terrorist 
     sympathizers. Business owners in the dense area around the 
     courthouse--newly filled with hotels, restaurants and luxury 
     apartments--fear disruptions amid a declining economy.
       Local officials acknowledged that they cannot control the 
     docket at the federal courthouse and said they would work 
     with the Justice Department to minimize problems. But the 
     resistance in Alexandria, one of the few places known for 
     handling high-level terrorism and national security cases, 
     illustrates some of the practical complexities facing the 
     president's plan to shutter the controversial detention 
     facility.
       The Guantanamo detainees include the five accused planners 
     of Sept. 11, among them former al-Qaeda operations chief 
     Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Putting detainees on trial in 
     Alexandria would mean moving them from an isolated island 
     prison 90 miles from Florida to a neighborhood brimming with 
     residents, thousands of federal employees and the new Westin 
     Alexandria Hotel 190 feet from the courthouse door.
       ``It would be a disaster,'' said Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-
     Va.), who co-sponsored legislation to ban the use of federal 
     funds to transfer detainees to Virginia detention facilities, 
     one of at least 10 similar bills filed by Republicans 
     nationwide. In a March 13 letter to Attorney General Eric H. 
     Holder Jr., Wolf questioned how officials would protect the 
     community.
       Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said the 
     administration is reviewing how to handle Guantanamo 
     detainees. ``It's far too early to speculate on the final 
     disposition of any particular detainee at this time, much 
     less begin speculating about potential judicial districts for 
     prosecution,'' he said. He declined to comment on Wolf s 
     letter.
       Matt Branigan, president of Fairfax-based Watermark Risk 
     Management International, said that the security could cost 
     millions and that a courthouse in a less-populated area would 
     be safer than Alexandria.
       ``The concern is that someone from the terrorist side of 
     things would want to make some statement in conjunction with 
     the trials,'' said Branigan, a former senior Air Force anti-
     terrorism officer. He said the new development in the area 
     ``makes the security plan much more complicated. You have 
     more locations to cover, more roofs to lock down with 
     snipers.''
       When the Alexandria jail, an eight-story red-brick building 
     adjacent to the Capital Beltway near the Woodrow Wilson 
     Bridge, opened in 1987, the area had been a city dump.
       ``The idea wasn't that you were going to house 
     terrorists,'' Lawhorne said. ``It was a local jail.''
       The 10-story federal courthouse opened a few blocks away in 
     1996 in what had been a field of mud. The chief judge brought 
     bag lunches to work because there were so few restaurants 
     nearby.
       Major terror trials were held in Manhattan in those days, 
     but Alexandria became the Bush administration's courthouse of 
     choice after hijacked airplanes slammed into the World Trade 
     Center and the Pentagon. Northern Virginia jurors and judges 
     were considered more conservative, and officials thought the 
     area was more secure.
       By early 2002, about a dozen terrorist suspects were held 
     at the jail, which by contract accepts up to 150 federal 
     inmates, and more if it can. Moussaoui, who spent 23 hours a 
     day inside his 80-square-foot cell, was constantly monitored 
     and never saw other inmates. An entire unit of six cells and 
     a common area was set aside just for him.
       ``It was a real hassle,'' said Alan Yamamoto, one of his 
     lawyers. ``Bringing even two or three or four people over 
     there is going to be a major headache.''
       Lawhorne said he would discuss any requests to hold 
     Guantanamo inmates with city officials.
       ``It would be a very extremely high-risk situation for us. 
     . . . My first obligation is to protect the interests of the 
     city,'' said the sheriff, who added that he would do what he 
     can: ``You can't run the other way when your country calls.''
       The 450-inmate jail was locked down every time Moussaoui 
     was moved to the back of the nearby courthouse in a heavily 
     armed convoy. Traffic was stopped as snipers watched from 
     rooftops. The route from the jail is much denser today.
       On a single block behind the courthouse, there is a luxury 
     326-unit apartment complex with a Fed Ex/Kinko's, cleaners 
     and cafe on the first floor; an office building with room for 
     ground floor retail; another office building; and a Marriott 
     Residence Inn. All opened within the past 18 months.
       Pramod Raheja, owner of Intelligent Office on the ground 
     floor of one building, said he would ``strongly oppose'' 
     bringing Guantanamo detainees to the neighborhood.
       Directly in front of the courthouse, in a thriving 
     community near Old Town known as Carlyle, the Westin anchors 
     a virtually all-new block with a coffee bar, an upscale 
     restaurant, a condominium complex with units costing more 
     than $1 million and a Thai restaurant. A Starbucks is opening 
     this month. The new U.S. Patent and Trademark Office complex, 
     with more than 7,000 employees, starts on the next block.
       ``I've never agreed with people who say `not in my back 
     yard,' but there are just too many people around here,'' said 
     Jim Boulton, president of the unit owners association at the 
     Caryle Towers condominium complex, which has been trying to 
     get the government to remove security barriers left over from 
     the Moussaoui trial. ``They need to find someplace else.''

  Mr. McCONNELL. The problems that one terrorist caused for Alexandria 
could be duplicated in any city or town to which detainees from 
Guantanamo

[[Page S5461]]

are sent. Although the administration hasn't given us any details on 
which cities or towns they might choose, we can imagine what they could 
look forward to, based on Alexandria's experience with Moussaoui. So 
here is what a community would have to experience: heavily armed agents 
patrolling local neighborhoods, rooftop snipers, streets locked down 
and access to local businesses cut off, identification checks and bomb-
smelling dogs checking cars, millions of dollars in cost and strained 
local resources. That is what you get when you have a terrorist in your 
hometown. Kentuckians don't want to live under these conditions. I 
doubt any other American would either, especially if we consider that 
any community that becomes a home to these detainees could have to 
endure these conditions for literally years, given the possible length 
of terror trials.
  Some of the other locations that have been mentioned as possible 
destinations for the terrorists at Guantanamo include facilities in 
South Carolina and Kansas. One local official in South Carolina 
responded to the possibility by saying he didn't have the police 
resources to deal with an influx of terrorists from Guantanamo. An 
official in Kansas said Guantanamo detainees would significantly tax 
his police resources.
  The administration claims that closing Guantanamo and transferring 
some detainees to U.S. soil would make the American people safer. It is 
hard to understand that statement. But based on the experience of 
Alexandria, it is easy to see why many Americans are skeptical. The 
administration has said that when it comes to Guantanamo, its highest 
priority is the safety of the American people. But safety is our top 
concern. The administration should rethink its plan to transfer 
terrorists to American communities.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________