Gitmo Inmates Heading for Colder Climes
We finally have the first, concrete step in the direction of closing the now infamous Guantanamo Bay prison.
The news reports say, “President Barack Obama has ordered the federal government to acquire an underused state prison”, the Thomson Correctional Center in rural Illinois.
According to the Illinois Department of Corrections’ website, Thomson is not so much “underused”, as empty.
According to a letter to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair Thomson will be upgraded and transformed into a facility that exceeds “supermax standards.”
The real question is whether the Guantanamo inmates will actually be charged with crimes and whether they will be properly tried, according to our law, or will Thomson simply become an extension of Gitmo, this time on U.S. territory?
U.S. officials said military tribunals for potential detainees would be held at Thomson. They also said that the facility could house detainees whom the president determines must be held indefinitely but can’t be tried.
Thomson will not solve all the administration’s Guantanamo-related problems. There still will be dozens of detainees not relocated to Thomson, myriad legal issues and potential resistance from Congress.
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Filed under: 9/11 • Afghanistan war • Crime • Homeland Security • Human Rights • Iraq War • Prison • Taliban • Terrorism • U.S. Politics • congress • conservatives • neocons • obama • politics • presidency • torture
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What a joke. Meet the new Gitmo, same as the old Gitmo. Window dressing is big with Dems I guess.
At least it wasn’t the Dems who locked thousands of mostly innocent people up… and tortured them of course…
Yea Obama simply said indefinite detention is fine and will be US policy under his administration. And if you want to see “torture” look at what the Taliban does. And in Obama’s Exec. Order it says he reserves the right to “torture” if need be.
Like I said… Dems only care about window dressing.
Harrison, and you should see what all kinds of people, groups and “cultures” do, or did to people. I would have expected us to be at least a bit above that.
At the same time, how would you explain “…facility could house detainees whom the president determines must be held indefinitely but can’t be tried”?
Why would someone be ineligible to be tried?
Either not enough evidence or evidence that, if shown, would give away too many secrets.
Not enough evidence, but someone is kept locked up for years? Too many of OUR secrets might be revealed? In that case maybe it should be a CIA tribunal, rather than a military one
Fortunately your view is the minority one. Exposing how we get the intel we do not only gives our enemies a playbook for what we know and how we know it but it also puts the lives of people who collect that intel at risk.
The CIA will have their work cut out for them keeping us safe with Obama as president.
Harrison, maybe you are right. We wouldn’t want to show the world how we get our “intel”. There are some toys available at ToysRus, that are probably more sophisticated than what we have been using, or at least it seems that way sometimes…
It is a zero sum game and you are smart enough to know that.