Sunday, December 6, 2009

Gitmo detainees headed for the Land of Lincoln?


That's the rumor:

They are calling it "beyond Supermax" - to make it sound like a super-duper prison facility and calm the sheeple, I guess.

Despite opposition from congressional Republicans, the Obama administration is signaling that a state prison in rural Thomson, Ill., will probably become the new home for scores of terrorism suspects now housed at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Officials from the White House, Defense Department and U.S. Bureau of Prisons spent two hours last week briefing more than a dozen members of the Illinois delegation in the office of Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. To reassure skeptical Republicans, they emphasized security.

Although the officials left open the possibility that another site could be chosen, participants emerged from the session convinced that the U.S. government will buy the largely unused $145 million Thomson Correctional Center, which was built in 2008.

If all goes well, administration sources involved in closing the Guantanamo Bay prison anticipate a handover of the Thomson facility by late winter. It would then take several months to prepare the prison to a level "beyond supermax" and put the staff in place, according to federal estimates.

Upping the ante as far as the need for 'beyond supermax' - military trials will be also be held there.

Officials said the Obama administration is considering the Illinois facility not only as a site for prolonged detention, but also as a location for military commission trials once a courtroom complex is added and the Guantanamo Bay prison is shuttered.

Remember Beslan, possums.

Attacks on prisons by al Qaeda to release their fellow jihadists are too numerous to list here. What do you think they were doing at that school in Beslan? Beslan had been used by Ossetian militia (Christian) as an internment camp for Ingush civilians (Sunni Muslims) during the 1992 Ossetian-Ingush conflict, and it was chosen as a target because of this connection.

Related:


Gitmo in the News (I hate to say I told you so - just sayin'.)

Obama's Gitmo catch and release program.

New Gitmo to be located in Obama's Illinois backyard? (I hate to say I told you so - again.)

Democrats ram through bill to allow transfer of Gitmo detainees.


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