Here's $200 Million, Take Our Prisoners!

While it's easy to call for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, President Obama is realizing that there are legitimate reasons that it can’t easily be done. No other country wants to house these dangerous terrorists on their soil. And, most Members of Congress are saying they don’t want them either. For instance, Congressman John Kline and I introduced legislation to keep them out of Minnesota.

However, after months of talk, America has found a country to take some of the detainees, and all it took was a little financial incentive.

Palau, a Pacific archipelago and long-time ally of the United States will take in 17 Uighur, or ethnic Chinese Muslims, detainees for the sum of $200 million in foreign aid. To put that number into context, the Wall Street Journal reports that that aid package breaks down to $11.7 million per detainee. For a country with 20,000 residents with a GDP of $164 million, talk about a boost to the economy!

Seventeen detainees gone, and only around 230 left. It looks like the President is going to be writing some pretty big checks in the next several months to deal with our detainees. Or he can admit that he’s learned since coming to office that his campaign promise is simply not the best plan for America.