Illinois Prison Will House Gitmo Detainees

The Obama administration notified Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn by letter Tuesday that it intends to acquire a rural prison in his state for the relocation of a "limited number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."
The underutilized Thomson Correctional Center is in the small village of Thomson, Ill., 150 miles east of Chicago. It has become the center of controversy over what to do for a limited number of terrorist suspects, about 200, held at Guantanamo Bay.

Republicans are stomping their feet because that's what they do. It pushes their narrative that Obama is a terrorist sympathizer, which plays to their wingnuts, who go even further, saying Obama is a secret Muslim terrorist. We already have 355 terrorists in prisons all around the nation. It's just politically beneficial for republicans to pitch a fit:

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blasted the plan to send Guantanamo detainees Thomson. McConnell dubbed the new facility "Gitmo North," and said the administration has failed to explain how it will make the United States safer.

"The American people and a bipartisan majority of the Congress have already rejected bringing terrorists to U.S. soil for long-term detention, and current law prohibits it," McConnell said. USA Today

Terrorists around the nation and not one escapee:

According to data provided by Traci L. Billingsley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, federal facilities on American soil currently house 216 international terrorists and 139 domestic terrorists. Some of these miscreants have been locked up here since the early 1990s. None of them has escaped. At the most secure prisons, nobody has ever escaped, period. Slate

Illinois governor Pat Quinn says the Thompson Correctional prison will be a maximum security prison for Gitmo detainees. No one has ever escaped a federal prison, he said. Detainees won't be allowed to have visitors. It will create 3,000 jobs in a depressed area of Illinois.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Gibbs on reporter's suggestion of an Illinois Gitmo. Sometimes our press corps is really disappointing:

Another Leaked Memo Another Wingnut Outburst

Sure are a lot of media leaks these days. Republicans will do whatever it takes to stand in the way of anything that Obama does. But, ultimately, they don't seem to get very far. Wingnuts are up in arms about terrorists being housed in an Illinois prison. The arguments they make are irrational and wingnutty.

I'm so tired of reading that Obama is Ayers best buddy and Obama is a Muslim terrorist sympathizer and Obama doesn't like this country. It's so ludicrous. How do you even counter such foolishness?

When you get to the core of wingnut belief, this is it: Obama, a black man, can't possibly love the nation as much as a white person. I know that sounds crazy but that's why we call them wingnuts. Wingnuts perceive Obama as foreign, without recognizing that they're bigots. They try to rationalize their stupidity with arguments such as Obama and Ayers are best buds.

Is this bigotry a virus in that it's contagious and spreading or did Obama just spark the bigots to life? I worry about the children. They're carrying hateful signs at tea parties and they hear all of their parents' nonsense.

But they are resilient and smarter than we give them credit for. My family has plenty of bigots but every since I was a kid, I intuitively knew they were nuts. No one ever made me carry a sign, though.

After a presidential memorandum leaked earlier Friday to the conservative website Big Government, White House, Pentagon and Illinois officials denied that any decision had been made, and cast the memo as an internal draft document.

The memo, addressed to the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General, calls on the former to “relocate inmates currently held at the Guantanamo Detention Center” to the Thomson Correction Center in Illinois “as expeditiously as possible.”

The Washington Post reported last Sunday that Thomson “will probably become the new home” for most Gitmo detainees. An administration official stressed that the memo posted is a “draft, pre-decisional document that lawyers at various agencies were drafting in preparation for a potential future announcement about where to house GTMO detainees.”

After a presidential memorandum leaked earlier Friday to the conservative website Big Government, White House, Pentagon and Illinois officials denied that any decision had been made, and cast the memo as an internal draft document.

The memo, addressed to the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General, calls on the former to “relocate inmates currently held at the Guantanamo Detention Center” to the Thomson Correction Center in Illinois “as expeditiously as possible.” Read more at politico.

Janet Napolitano Speaks on Gitmo Detainees

An Illinois prison is being considered for Gitmo detainees. Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano also discusses the decision to try KSM and others in New York.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

There is much debate over the decision to try KSM in civilian court, but what's likely to happen is these guys are going to plead guilty to be martyrs and the whole thing will be over lickety split:

Illinois Prison Could House Gitmo Detainees

The Obama administration may buy a near-empty prison in rural northwestern Illinois to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay along with federal inmates, a White House official said Saturday.
The maximum-security Thomson Correctional Facility, about 150 miles west of Chicago, was one of several evaluated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and emerged as a leading option to house the detainees, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because a decision has not been made.
President Barack Obama wants alleged terrorism suspects from the controversial military-run detention center in Cuba to be transferred to U.S. soil so they can be prosecuted for their suspected crimes.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has been hinting at a possible new use for Thomson, and he issued a statement saying he would hold a news conference Sunday to outline those plans. AP

Fox News Sunday panel discussed this today:

Not on the video, is the discussion they had about Sarah Palin.
Liz Cheney says it would be sexist to say that Sarah Palin couldn't be president.
Bill Kristol fawns over Palin and Juan Williams sets them straight.
I'm surprised that they only briefly talked about Obama's bow to the Japanese emperor. It's on fire in wingnut circles. Bill Kristol says Palin wouldn't bow or even curtsy to anyone. That's because she doesn't know enough to know whether she should.
Republicans always talk about the need for less political correctness, well how about this, Palin is an idiot when it comes to international relations. Let's not pretend.
Liz Cheney also suggests Cheney 2012? Cheney Palin? Never. Never. Never. Ever.

Michigan Town Wants Gitmo Prisoners Hoekstra Says No

Federal officials will travel to Standish, Michigan, on Thursday to tour a state prison that could be used to house terror suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. government officials said Wednesday.

The prison in Standish, Michigan, is slated for closure but would stay open if Guantanamo detainees are sent there.

Among those who will check out the facility, the officials said, will be representatives from the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons.

One administration official stressed no decision has been made about where to relocate Guantanamo detainees. Multiple options are under consideration. That official added Thursday's visit is simply to gather information about the prison.

The prison in Standish is a maximum security facility slated for closure. Some local officials would like to see Guantanamo prisoners brought there as a way to keep the prison open and preserve jobs in an area with more than 20 percent unemployment. More at CNN

Republican Pete Hoekstra has promised to fight having Gitmo prisoners in Michigan. His tweet:

If press reports on moving Gitmo detainees to Mich are accurate my answer is no. I will do everything possible to stop this.

Meanwhile, Sen. Carl Levin is for it and so is Standish. They want the jobs:

Give us Gitmo!
To the rest of the country, the 229 suspect Al Qaeda, Taliban and foreign fighters at Guantanamo Bay are terrorists.
To the men and women who work at the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility, they could be a meal ticket.
Unemployment is at more than 17% in Standish and residents say they would welcome a possible plan to relocate detainees from the soon-to-be shuttered Guantanamo Bay prison to the U.S.
"We'll take the most dangerous prisoners the world has to offer if we have to," corrections officer Paul Piche said Monday.
Read more at NYDN

Gates: Fear Mongering on Detainees in U.S. Prisons