Obama Green Lights Thomson-Gitmo Deal

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Dec 15, 2009 3:00PM

An announcement will be made later today that President Obama has given the go-ahead for the federal government to purchase the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois to hold federal inmates and some detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay. Gov. Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin will be in Washington, D.C. today to meet with officials over details of the acquisition. Both have supported the move which they claim could create over 3,500 jobs. The Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet, who indicated over the weekend this move was coming, reports:

The Bureau of Prisons would occupy 75 percent of the facility and the Defense Department would use 25 percent of the space for the detainees. The plan calls for two “entirely separate facilities side by side.”

“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-Qaida. Tomorrow’s announcement is an important step forward as we work to achieve our national security objectives,” an official said in a statement.

The total number of Guantanamo detainees that will wind up in Illinois is still being considered. According to the Tribune:

At present, there are 210 detainees in custody in Guantanamo Bay. About 90 of them have been cleared for transfer back to their native countries or sent to other countries. Five are being turned over to the Department of Justice for federal trial in New York.

After today, the next step will be a panel hearing on December 22 held by the bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. The panel will recommend to Gov. Quinn whether to keep the prison open or closed, a recommendation Quinn will either accept or reject. But Quinn says no legislation has to pass for him to be able to sell the prison; he merely has to have the recommendation and then he can sale the prison under the state's surplus property act. According to the Trib, however, "Republicans have questioned whether the prison can be declared surplus or sold without further action, and they have asked Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan for an opinion on the matter." Madigan has yet to issue a response.

The plan has been met with some resistance, including U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk who wrote an open letter to President Obama saying, in part, “If your Administration brings Al Qaeda terrorists to Illinois, our state and the Chicago Metropolitan Area will become ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization...As home to America's tallest building, we should not invite Al Qaeda to make Illinois its number one target.”