Look to Russia to see danger in Gitmo

The danger of bringing the five Gitmo terrorists to New York to be tried in our civilian court is not only the circus they will make of the trial itself, or the platform they will be given to spout their jihad venom to a worldwide audience. The danger is not that they will not be adequately guarded by our marshals during the trial. The danger is not that they might escape from the Thompson, Illinois prison or anywhere else. There are even more frightening dangers that Americans need to fear.

We need to look at what happened in Russia in 2002 after Putin's government imprisoned the Chechen jihadists for the Moscow theater massacre. The Chechen organization, that called itself the "Riyadus Shamil martyr battalion" invaded a school in Beslan, which is not even in Chechnya. They chose Sept. 1, a festival day of the opening of the school year. A total of 777 children and 223 adults were in the school when invaded by the terrorists, who had preplaced rockets, ammunition and fire bombs while the building was being renovated that summer.

For 52 hours a horrified world watched as terrorists declared a fast and did not allow any one food or water or toilet facilities. Children cried for water, parents were raped and tortured before their children. Adult men were shot. Negotiations were made and broken with the local police, government officials and army. Seeing no alternative, the order was given to storm the building. A huge fire broke out. Estimates of those killed vary, but final tally is 334 killed of which 184 were children.

If the "Gitmo five" are imprisoned, we run the danger of hostages being taken demanding their release. We run the danger of our children being pawns to these "martyr battalions."

Priscilla Weese

Wheaton