Gitmo detainees will soon be calling the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois "Home, Sweet Home."
Terrorists are leaving the prison at Guantanamo Bay and relocating to western Illinois, not too far south of the Wisconsin border.
Terrific.
This plan was discussed a month ago. What was being floated as an idea then is about to become a reality.
From ABC News:
A prison complex 150 miles from Chicago will house Gitmo detainees, the Obama administration will announce Tuesday.
A senior administration official tells ABC News that on Tuesday the administration will announce that President Obama "has directed that the federal government proceed with the acquisition of the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois to house federal inmates and a limited number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."
..."Closing the detention center at Guantanamo is essential to protecting our national security and helping our troops by removing a deadly recruiting tool from the hands of al Qaeda," the official said. "Tomorrow’s announcement is an important step forward as we work to achieve our national security objectives."
It's argued that closing Gitmo is important to national security, but bringing detainees to Illinois certainly isn't going to help security in the heartland.
Guantanamo isn't an al Qaeda recruiting tool in and of itself. The act of detaining is the issue. Alleged abuse is the issue.
Why wouldn't a maximum security prison in Illinois be the same sort of recruiting tool as Gitmo? What's the difference?
Just paint a target on the Thomson Correctional Center. It will be a magnet for terrorist threats.
Terrorists, attack here.
I think we should house the detainees in D.C. Keep them in the House and Senate office buildings. Is there room in the basement of the White House? Put the detainees there.
Here's more on the Obama administration's plan, from the Chicago Tribune:
President Barack Obama has directed the federal government to buy the near-empty state prison in rural Thomson, Ill., to house federal inmates and up to 100 detainees from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said late Monday.
The official announcement is planned for Tuesday and follows weeks of consideration of the Thomson Correctional Center as a site for Guantanamo detainees.
...Administration officials have estimated some 3,800 jobs would be created in and around Thomson to operate the prison.
Now, is that 3,800 jobs created or 3,800 jobs saved?
...In previous discussions, aides said the federal government would operate the Thomson site as a prison for its highest-risk inmates, and also turn over a portion to the Department of Defense to take transferees from the U.S. military prison in Cuba.
The administration has also considered the possibility of operating a military tribunal at or near the prison, where the government would try combatants charged with acts of terrorism. Officials did not comment on that idea Monday.
The Thomson site could become the sole location for what the administration calls "long-term detainees," those suspects who will remain in custody but who are not likely to stand trial.
That sounds great, military tribunals in northwestern Illinois. Just great.
Does Dick Durbin really think that al Qaeda members will be cool with the Thomson prison? Really?
Does Obama think that the world will look approvingly on the Thomson Correctional Center, especially Muslim nations?
Thomson will become Gitmo North. It will be despised.
I'm not at all comfortable with bringing these detainees to reside in a facility located at the heart of the U.S. mainland.
And this is being sold as an economic boon for the region? I don't think it will help the local economy if residents leave the area.
I wouldn't want to live anywhere near the place.
7 comments:
"I'm not at all comfortable with bringing these detainees to reside in a facility located at the heart of the U.S. mainland."
So you'd rather we kept them in our concentration camp in Guantanamo?
Coward.
What sort of facility do you think Thomson is?
How will it be different from Gitmo, other than being in Illinois?
I don't think the detainees will like the weather.
In my opinion, Obama is acting like a coward with this lame decision.
Politics at its worst.
The difference between Illinois and Guantanamo should be obvious - it's a simple matter of jurisdiction. The previous administration didn't have the guts to be subject to the rule of law, in this and many other circumstances, and often were no better than the people they sought to incarcerate. The idea that these terrorists are somehow more dangerous than other common criminals is naive at best, because that's all they are. When we elevate them to the status of foreign combatants, we do them a favor give them more credit than they deserve. We make them bigger, and apparently scarier then they really are. That's cowardly, imho.
Note: Are you the "anonymous" above? If you want to engage in a discussion, then you must pick a name. Click "Name/URL" for your identity.
Unfortunately, Blogger doesn't have that option available without the "anonymous" option.
Surely, you aren't so cowardly that you fear making up a screen name for posting purposes.
_____________
We are poles apart in how we view the terrorist threat.
I remember what happened on 9/11 and the series of successful attacks against the U.S. on our soil and abroad.
No more dangerous than common criminals? I think your statement is stunningly and dangerously naive.
Ok - here's my name.
I'm not afraid of what these thugs might do on U.S. soil. I'm glad to see them treated as they should be. I'm glad to see the return of the rule of law after eight years of an administration that ignored it whenever it was convenient, fostering a culture of fear and loathing of anything it simply couldn't deal with so they could manipulate public opinion, apparently including yours. Good riddance to that lot of cowards and posers.
What do you think is so dangerous that we can't handle it? In other words, what are you so afraid of?
This.
Listen to Melissa Doi. It's heartbreaking.
Ok, so that's what you're afraid of? Do you listen to cockpit recordings of airplanes as they crash, or perhaps the recordings of the Space Shuttle just before it disintegrated? Because frankly I think that's all pretty perverse. Porn for the Paranoid.
It seems obscenely morbid to post something like that online in the first place, but that's what the First Amendment is about. Would you like to keep it? Because it was at serious risk for awhile there along with a few other Amendments.
Let me ask you this: do you think that recording, that event justifies torture, and kidnapping and suspension of habeas corpus, and illegal wiretapping, and invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, killing far more Americans than died on that day? Do you really think the 4,371 Americans killed in Iraq had an easier time of it? Or are you only concerned about the 2,752 who died on 9/11 because you're afraid it could someday happen to you, especially, as you said, if those evil people were moved to a facility anywhere near you? I assume you weren't just concerned about property values.
Just exactly what kind of people do you think are already housed in maximum security prisons across the country?
I realize I won't change your mind on this, but maybe you might give this alternate perspective some thought.
Post a Comment