Patterico's Pontifications

12/15/2009

GTMO Comes to the Mainland (Updated)

Filed under: Obama,Terrorism — DRJ @ 7:09 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, the Obama Administration has officially named an Illinois prison 150 miles from Chicago as the new home of the GTMO detainees or, as I call it, GTMO North:

“This doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, since (a) Barack Obama is desperate to close Gitmo any way he can do it now, (b) Illinois Democrats practically lobbied to use the Thomson Correctional Facility for that purpose, and (c) Obama can afford to anger Illinois. What — they’re going to abandon their native son in 2012? Anyway, the folks of Illinois may be forgiven if they scratch their heads at the curious notion that we’re about to import terrorists as a way to improve national security.”

Ed Morrissey calls it the AQ Airlift, which I admit is better than my nickname. His conclusion is better, too:

“It’s almost unfathomable as to how any administration could give up a facility perfectly suited for this kind of detention, run by military units trained to do it, in favor of dropping terrorists into the heartland of America. Why almost unfathomable? After increasing troop strength in Afghanistan, Obama needed to throw a bone to the Left, and this is it.”

— DRJ

UPDATE — White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says Republicans like John Boehner, who asked “How Will Importing Terrorists Make America Safer?”, are just crazy:

“If there are concerns for security reasons, I would hope some of those people would address why they think the military can do what they’re doing at Guantanamo and can’t do it at Thomson,” Gibbs said at his daily briefing today.

Continued Gibbs, “I will say this. I have seen some far crazier comments today — comments from people like John Boehner. Here’s what I would suggest for John Boehner. Call up Leon Panetta or Denny Blair at the CIA or the director of national intelligence. Ask them if he can come down and watch a video put out by Al Qaida senior leadership like — the names that we recognize, (Ayman al-) Zawahiri. Thirty-two times since 2001 and four times this year alone, senior Al Qaida leadership in recruiting videos have used the prison at Guantanamo Bay as a clarion call to bring extremists from around the world to join their effort.”

This is Gibb’s defense of GTMO North? Call me crazy but what it suggests to me is now al Qaeda can put out recruiting videos calling on extremists to come fight in Illinois and New York.

H/T Dana, with my thanks.

34 Responses to “GTMO Comes to the Mainland (Updated)”

  1. This is so embarrassing. Here in Illinois, we do many things badly. I hope that this endeavour isn’t one of them.

    carlitos (57cfe1)

  2. There are no words to describe how stupid and ill-thought out this is. Rasmussen poll on Saturday showed that Illinoisans in general do not want this although the people who live in the little towns in NW Illinois look at it as a jobs engine. Meanwhile, it’s not that Illinois does not need this prison for its own crooks and murderers. Convicted criminals have been (sometimes secretly) being released well before their sentences are up due to overcrowding. It’s only a matter of time till a Willie Horton situation occurs here.

    Illinois is so broke that once built, Thomson could never be fully staffed and utilized for lack of funding. Now Durbin acts like its an honor and our patriotic duty to take these terrorists. Gitmo North indeed.

    Obama may be “throwing a bone” to the left, but in the process he is screwing over his home state. And some lefty Illinois politicians are going to lose elections over this.

    elissa (99c68d)

  3. elissa,

    It’s true Illinois is releasing prisoners early due to budget problems, but I can’t decide whether that makes the sale of Thomson Correctional to the federal government a good idea (because it helps balance the budget) or a bad idea (because it reduces the number of available state prison beds). But when you consider this will be used as a prison anyway, and a prison for some of the world’s most dangerous people, I’m going with it’s a bad idea.

    DRJ (84a0c3)

  4. Robert Gibbs’s arrogantly determined that the reasonable concerns of John Boehner were just “hyperbole”, “scare tactics we haven’t seen in quite some time”, and that Boehner’s concerns were less than sane.

    The obvious insanity of John Boehner,

    “Once again, the Obama Administration has put the interests of liberal special interest groups before the safety and security of the American people,” Boehner said. “The American people don’t want dangerous terrorists imported on to U.S. soil, and we have had bipartisan votes in both the House and Senate reaffirming this position. What’s worse, this decision is completely unnecessary considering that these terrorists were already being tried by military commissions, which were specifically designed under the law to prosecute such heinous acts.”

    Dana (e9ba20)

  5. I’ve updated the post with Dana’s tip.

    DRJ (84a0c3)

  6. Just to ask, but which KongressKritter introduced authorizing and/or appropriation legislation for this matter?
    And, since our Kongress famously proceeds on a “Pay Go” system, what expenditures have been cut to free-up funds for this transaction, or absent that, what taxes have been used to raise the required funds for the purchase and re-hab/transformation of this facility to comply with Federal guidelines for a “SuperMax” facility?

    AD - RtR/OS! (7e8f29)

  7. The prison was built only this century and the max security part has never been opened up. There are 1600 max cells and eight housing units. There are 200 minimum security beds, 144 are currently occupied. The prison probably generated jobs when it was built (mostly construction) and can generate some more short term construction jobs as they convert for these “high value” prisoners, but not much more.

    Other state prisons are overloaded and this one hasn’t really been utilized. They’re also thinking of closing another state prison.

    I am hoping that Quinn has signed his own political death warrant with this. Too bad Durbin has another 5 years on this term. By then people might have forgotten.

    kimsch (2ce939)

  8. If one of these prisoners assaults one of the guards or commits any other crime while in this prison, will they be held accountable for that crime in an American court? If so, will they be tried in a state court or a federal court. Where would we find a jury of their peers (Minnesota or Hollywood)?

    If they commit a misdemeanor will they be tried in a local court? This would be a security nightmare for a local misdemeanor court.

    Huey (b957d9)

  9. Maybe Blago and Burris can share a cell at the real GTMO.

    Icy Texan (fa42ba)

  10. Another Solid B+ move by Owebama.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  11. I am positive that terrorists have no chance of getting close to Gitmo. I’m fairly certain that they have no chance of penetrating the correctional facility at Thomson. But home-grown terrorists driving into town and blowing things up? Looks pretty easy to me. Thomson, IL just became a big target behind NYC and DC.

    Zoltan (b022a7)

  12. Of course these are the same Democrats that oppose the use of Yucca Mountain to hold nuclear waste because there is an infinitesimal chance that 15,000 years from now one of the steel canisters might leak some radiation 2 miles underground in a glass sealed tunnel in the middle of a desert.

    What a great set of psychological labs rats these guys would be for assessing their understanding of risk.

    Glad to know that these guys are the majority party and are in charge of things like national security, the economy, soon to be masters of our medical fate, etc.

    in_awe (a55176)

  13. I guess conservatives took an extra dose of their old lady hysteria pills.

    Our prisons are NO place for terrorists. So we should release all the ones currently in there immediately.

    Since you all have zero faith in our penal system’s ability to handle dangerous prisoners, we should also release all the murderers, rapists, drug dealers, etc.

    JEA (0ccd61)

  14. JEA, you are bereft of any intelligence.

    I’m about 50 miles from Thomson. I’m investing in more specialized hand loads for my Winchester, and am going to look at purchasing a .30-06 from my brother. You bet I’m going to have even more special .30-06 rounds that will go through an ACLU Lawyer and still kill their terrorist client.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  15. Moving GITMO north does what exactly?

    Make US prisons recruiting centers for al Qaeda, what a novel idea.

    And all those high paying prison guard jobs, is that a prelude to the future Obama America?

    bill-tb (541ea9)

  16. “If one of these prisoners assaults one of the guards or commits any other crime while in this prison, will they be held accountable for that crime in an American court? If so, will they be tried in a state court or a federal court. Where would we find a jury of their peers (Minnesota or Hollywood)?

    Is this really this hard for you or are you just pretending?

    [note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]

    imdw (d472cb)

  17. RE: 14

    I thought there was a severe ammo shortage.

    JEA (0ccd61)

  18. JEA continues its pattern of setting up strawmen, and mowing them down with a flamethrower.

    JD (431886)

  19. 16, Factory ammo, but these are hand, custom loaded rounds of ammunition. I buy the cases, bullets, powder, and primers.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  20. I’m really pissed out here. First we had the “happy face bomber” booby trapping our mailboxes, now this!

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  21. Gibbs is like the Alan character from The Hangover–a fat idiot savant who is too stupid to insult.

    Another Chris (2d8013)

  22. Since you all have zero faith in our penal system’s ability to handle dangerous prisoners, we should also release all the murderers, rapists, drug dealers, etc.

    This is nothing more than lazy deflection. It doesn’t matter if it’s Gitmo, Thomson, or a storage shed in your mother’s backyard, Al Qaeda will use the facility as a “clarion call” for terrorist recruiting. For Gibbs to state that Gitmo is a recruiting tool completely misses the big picture.

    Obama isn’t putting the Gitmo prisoners in Thomson because he has faith in the American penal system–he’s doing it because he promised to specifically take them out of Gitmo, and if you’ve been paying attention over the last year, he can’t convince our allies to take them all off our hands.

    This is nothing more than political cynicism, and is certainly not meant to remove a flashpoint from terrorist recruiting in any way, no matter how much the administration lies about it.

    Another Chris (2d8013)

  23. When they make flamethrowers illegal, only JEA will have flamethrowers.

    carlitos (57cfe1)

  24. Carlitos, JEA can have his bic lighter. I have cases of whoopass!

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  25. Or they will just lie in their recruiting videos and say Gitmo is still open! They lie about everything else…

    Patricia (b05e7f)

  26. Patricia, Correction, they will say Obama is lying about closing Gitmo as Obama lies about everything, and that is a truth the whole world believes, especially the Nobel Peace Prize committee.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  27. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Gitmo, Thomson, or a storage shed in your mother’s backyard, Al Qaeda will use the facility as a “clarion call” for terrorist recruiting.”

    Hmmm, I thought they were already doing that with Gitmo. So your argument really doesn’t hold any water.

    It’s conservatives who are dill-pickle crazy on this issue. Let ’em rot forgotten in a supermax.

    JEA (0ccd61)

  28. When they arrested KSM in Pakistan in 2003, his expectation was he was going to get a lawyer,meaning
    we couldn’t get any information out of him, on future plots, personnel involved etc. There is no such assurance If we detained a HVT now, on some distant battlefield, and they have won a measure
    of satisfaction

    bishop (474138)

  29. #13 — Comment by JEA — 12/16/2009 @ 4:15 am

    I guess conservatives took an extra dose of their old lady hysteria pills.

    You are right JEA, like all of President Obama’s policies, it is certain this one was well thought-out, competently planned, fiscally responsible, devoid of politics and corruption, and is in the best interest of the country.

    So we can all rest easy.

    (How dare “conservatives” question the logic of this political maneuver. Guess the same holds for any Americans that ask the same questions and raise the same issues — interesting that. Oh, almost forgot, here is a source you will find most credible.)

    Pons Asinorum (6adc3d)

  30. “Hmmm, I thought they were already doing that with Gitmo. So your argument really doesn’t hold any water.” – JEA

    I don’t get what you mean. Al Qaeda has and will continue to use Gitmo as a clarion call. Al Qaeda will now use Thompson the same way if/when the prisoners are moved there. The point is – moving them from Gitmo solves nothing in regards to this. Is that too difficult to understand?

    My confusion comes from the claim this will create three thousand new jobs.

    I found this: “Federal and state officials estimate the federal takeover will create as many as 3,000 jobs in the area within several years, including an estimated 800 to 900 at the prison and at local businesses that would sprout up as a result.” at here (http://cbs13.com/national/guantanamo.prison.illinois.2.1370006.html)

    Curious how the housing of 100 prisoners could have such an effect. If this is true, we should capture thousands more and open up new facilities across the country. This is much better than cash for clunkers.

    Corwin (ea9428)

  31. “I don’t get what you mean. Al Qaeda has and will continue to use Gitmo as a clarion call. Al Qaeda will now use Thompson the same way if/when the prisoners are moved there.”

    Doesn’t matter where we move them, al queada will use them as a rallying cry. But we deprive them of using the citicism of other countries as well, and we won’t be open to charges of ‘torture’. I’m all for depriving them of whatever resources they have,and that includes Gitmo.

    JEA (594f31)

  32. Symbolic change and political patronage. Yippee!

    JD (37cd91)

  33. Hey, I’m still carrying around a roll of toilet paper in the trunk of my car with a picture of Saddam on each sheet and the words “Wipe Your Crack With The Guy From Iraq.” I keep trying to give it away to some pansy ass lib, but I haven’t got any takers yet.

    Thought I’d throw that in there for some reason.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  34. #31 — Comment by JEA — 12/16/2009 @ 4:39 pm

    Doesn’t matter where we move them, al queada will use them as a rallying cry.

    True.

    But we deprive them of using the citicism of other countries as well, and we won’t be open to charges of ‘torture’.

    False.

    I’m all for depriving them of whatever resources they have, and that includes Gitmo.

    Wishful thinking and symbolic gestures (and other such meaningless “actions”) are weaknesses and will be viewed as such by al Qaeda.

    Not only will such hollow gestures fail to reduce resources for al Qaeda, they will likely inspire the following and encourage them. This is very much a victory for al Qaeda (both materially and in perception).

    BTW: you contradicted your argument in #27 (the non-emotional part) with your first statement in #31.

    Pons Asinorum (6adc3d)


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