Foreign Detainees in the Midwest
If suspected terrorists from Guantanamo Bay end up being held in Kansas, it wouldn't be the first time foreign detainees were imprisoned in the Midwest.
Thousands of Germans and Italians spent the last days of World War II in confinement on the prairie, far from the deserts of North Africa and plains of Western Europe.
As the U.S. weighs what to do with 229 suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters now jailed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, one possibility is moving them to the military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
But historians say the circumstances and Midwesterners' acceptance of the World War II POWs was far different from opposition being raised to bringing in Guantanamo prisoners. Many Kansas residents and elected leaders say they don't want them, worried the detainees would pose a security risk.
"It is not supported by the American public and will not change the world's opinion of us one iota by substituting the name 'Leavenworth' for the name 'Guantanamo," Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said Monday at Leavenworth.
During World War II, thousands of prisoners of war were held in Kansas, Michigan — another possible site for Guantanamo detainees — Missouri and other states. Historians agree there was little opposition.
Read entire article at AP
Thousands of Germans and Italians spent the last days of World War II in confinement on the prairie, far from the deserts of North Africa and plains of Western Europe.
As the U.S. weighs what to do with 229 suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters now jailed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, one possibility is moving them to the military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
But historians say the circumstances and Midwesterners' acceptance of the World War II POWs was far different from opposition being raised to bringing in Guantanamo prisoners. Many Kansas residents and elected leaders say they don't want them, worried the detainees would pose a security risk.
"It is not supported by the American public and will not change the world's opinion of us one iota by substituting the name 'Leavenworth' for the name 'Guantanamo," Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said Monday at Leavenworth.
During World War II, thousands of prisoners of war were held in Kansas, Michigan — another possible site for Guantanamo detainees — Missouri and other states. Historians agree there was little opposition.