Thread: U.S. to house Guantanamo detainees in Illinois

U.S. to house Guantanamo detainees in Illinois, officials say

The federal government will buy the nearly empty Thomson Correctional Center, which sources say could hold 35 to 90 terrorism suspects.

By Christi Parsons
December 15, 2009

Reporting from Washington - President Obama has directed the federal government to buy the nearly empty state prison in rural Thomson, Ill., to house federal inmates and up to 90 detainees from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said late Monday.

The administration plans to announce the news on Tuesday, following weeks of consideration of the Thomson Correctional Center as the most secure site in the federal prison system.

The decision is part of a complicated closure plan for shutting down the controversial Guantanamo center, a lightning rod for anti-American sentiment around the world as a result of detainee abuses there during the previous administration.

Obama ordered its shutdown as one of his first acts after his inauguration in January.

But actually closing it has been a much more cumbersome matter because of the difficulty of finding other places for the terrorism suspects to go. Officials in Illinois suggested the nearly vacant Thomson prison, completed in 2001 but never fully operational.

Under a plan to be unveiled in coming days, the administration plans to send some of the detainees to their home countries and some to third countries, some of which operate rehabilitation programs for suspected terrorists.

The Thomson prison could house 35 to 90 detainees from Guantanamo, said one source familiar with the discussions.

Toward that end, Obama has directed that the federal government proceed with the acquisition of the Thomson center, an administration official said late Monday. The official said the prison would be used to house federal inmates as well as "a limited number of detainees" from Guantanamo Bay.

"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 administration official said. "The announcement Tuesday "is an important step forward as we work to achieve our national security objectives."

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn are scheduled to be in Washington on Tuesday afternoon to be briefed by administration officials at the White House on the decision. Both Democrats, Durbin and Quinn have been major promoters of the project.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and- ... 5625.story

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