Remote site for Gitmo detainees

The Navy brig in Hanahan is not the right place to put terror detainees if, as expected, President-elect Barack Obama closes down the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Neither is any other facility in a densely populated area.

First District Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., has introduced legislation barring the use of federal funds for moving those inmates, some of them proven terrorists committed to murdering as many Americans as possible, to the Navy brig. And while that bill apparently has scant chance of passage during this lame-duck session, it does send a needed signal on the security challenges that any such transfer will present.

Among the approximately 255 detainees at Guantanamo are 18 men who have already been charged with war crimes. Moving them close to any U.S. city of even moderate population would be a foolish invitation for trouble.

As Rep. Brown told our reporter: "While it is located on a military base, the brig is also less than a mile away from a highly populated civilian area. Bringing these extremely dangerous war criminals, deemed too high a threat to be sent home, would add an unnecessary terrorist threat to our community."

And as Rep. Brown observed, the threat would extend to the Port of Charleston and the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command. He proposes sending those detainees to the federal "supermax" prison in Colorado or the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Both of those sites are far from population centers.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Judge Advocate General colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, made the same case against putting Guantanamo detainees here or in any other metropolitan center last week. He told us that "wherever you put them, it will become a high-value target."

That requires a secure facility far from cities. The incoming administration should heed the advice to find an appropriate destination for detainees before closing Guantanamo.