Administration moves ahead on prison purchase

[SpartanDem]

Source: LA Times

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will purchase a prison in rural western Illinois even if Congress rejects the president's plan to lock up terror suspects there, a key official at the Justice Department said Monday.

Lawmakers are threatening to scotch Obama's proposal to move terror detainees to the unused state prison, a critical part of his plan to shut down the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Even if lawmakers make good on that threat, a letter from Justice Department suggests, the federal government will simply use the facility to hold federal inmates

President Obama moved to shut down the controversial Guantanamo prison shortly after taking office, saying it had become a lightning rod for anti-American sentiment around the world and thus was a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.

Closing the prison has been difficult, however, as members of Congress decline to grant approval for transferring the Guantanamo detainees



Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-thomson-prison22-20100621,0,7560745.story

[Rhiannon12866]

1. What about the empty prison in Montana?

The mayor and the citizens were all for it... :shrug:

[ixion]

2. From what I remember about the creation of the [e-mail]

There is a very specific reason that the prison is not on US soil. If it were, I believe they would have to charge and try the individuals, which they most certainly do not want to do.

The was also the reason for the creation of the faux 'war' term "enemy combatant."

[Scuba]

3. How about just turning them loose in the Hamptons?

[loudsue]

6. That's a bit over the top....but turning them loose on Wall Street would be nice.

Maybe they would scare the crooks on Wall Street and send 'em home.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[mopinko]

5. this is about mark kirk

this is about mark kirk being able to go around and say that he kept illinois farmers safe from teh evil ones. even tho the illinois farmers want the jobs at the prison.

[sabra]

7. Feds To Buy Thomson, Even Without Gitmo Prisoners

Source: myfox illinois

SPRINGFIELD – No one knows who will be housed there, but the administration of President Barack Obama is moving to buy the Thomson prison by the end of year.

The nearly empty state-built lock-up north of the Quad Cities had been eyed as a destination for terror suspects when the U.S. military's prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba closed. That has yet to happen, but now there's word that Thomson will be bought regardless of who will be housed there.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and northern Illinois Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) released a letter late Monday that explained the federal Bureau of Prisons is moving ahead with the sale, and hopes to take over Thomson by the end of the year.

Ronald Weich, an Assistant Attorney General, wrote both Durbin and Manzullo that the federal government is standing behind its commitment to buy the Thomson prison.

If Guantanamo Bay terror suspects are not brought to Illinois, or anywhere else in the U.S., Thomson may be used for federal inmates in other prisons across the country.

Read more: http://www.myfoxillinois.com/dpp/news/illinois/06212010_feds_to_buy_thomson