Guantanamo Bay poses public relations, security puzzle for America

Less than one week into his Presidency, Barack Obama has hit the ground running.

On Wednesday, he issued executive orders and memorandums designed to improve government ethics and make the government more open.

“I will also hold myself as President to a new standard of openness,” Obama said. “Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

Love it.

Obama also ordered all of his political appointees to sign a pledge restricting their contact with lobbyists and their ability to rotate employment between government and industry.

I'm with you.

Obama also signed a memorandum freezing the pay of his White House senior staff members at current levels.

Unfortunately, a lot of people can relate to that one.

On Thursday, the President signed executive orders ending the CIA's secret prisons and requiring all interrogations to follow the non-coercive methods of the Army Field Manual.

In doing so, Mr. Obama declared that “our ideals give us the strength and moral high ground” in the fight against Al Qaeda.

I agree - America stands for a lot of things - and morality should be a cornerstone.

The President also signed an executive order closing the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year. As part of that order, Obama also halted for now the military trials under way at Gitmo.

That's where he lost me.

Let me be clear, I get the fact that Gitmo is a public relations mess for the country.

But the questions remain - is there really a reason to let some of these people go?

And if not Guantanamo Bay, where?

Here are three reasons why we might want to think twice before we do a 180-degree turn on this issue:

The first two:

Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri and Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi.

On Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported that two men released from Guantanamo Bay, appeared in a video posted on a jihadist website.

According to the report, one of the two former inmates, a Saudi identified as al-Shahri, or prisoner number 372, has been elevated to the senior ranks of Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

Three other men appear in the video, including al-Oufi, identified as an Al-Qaeda field commander. The report claims he was prisoner No. 333.

"By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for, and were imprisoned for," al-Shahri was quoted as saying.

According to the story, the Pentagon has said as many as 61 former Guantanamo detainees, about 11 percent of 520 detainees transferred from the detention center and released, are believed to have returned to the fight.

61 Terrorists - that's enough to pull off another 9/11 round of hijackings - but this time, 12 planes could be part of the Al-Qaeda fireworks, with one terrorist left over to post the video online.

And here's one more reason why closing Gitmo might not be such a good idea.

Among the places the government is considering housing the detainees - the Naval Brig in North Charleston.

That's right, along with visiting the U.S.S. Yorktown, taking a carriage ride down King Street, and strolling along Rainbow Row, your next trip to one of South Carolina's most visited cities could include a drive past a prison housing hundreds of terrorists.

On Friday, I asked U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham what he thought of the idea. Not surprisingly, Graham didn't seem too hot on the idea of bringing this kind of federal project to the Palmetto state. Graham told me any facility that would house suspected or convicted terrorists would have to meet two criteria.

First, it had to be built to withstand an attack designed to martyr or free the inmates inside.

Second, it could not be located anywhere near a population center.

So, the new folks at the Pentagon might want to look elsewhere when they start filling out transfer papers for the detainees at Gitmo.

The bottom line, Guantanamo Bay is a public relations mess for the United States, but finding a safe, secure alternative may be one of the toughest jobs facing the new administration.

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