Cue the Hysterics

December 15, 2009  |  Posted by Danielle Belton

Right now there's a lot of mind-numbing rhetoric coming from the right about Guantanamo Bay detainees coming to a maximum security prison in Thomson, Ill. The government is set to announce today the plan to move dozens of detainees to the detension facility. What's odd about it is that they're incensed over a "leaked" memo that only confirms what the government has been talking about for almost a month now -- that the Obama Administration wants to and is planning on purchasing the Thomson detention facility to house detainees.

Still, that didn't stop the folks at Andrew Brietbart's Big Government site from sounding the fear-mongering alarm on an "exclusive" that you could have seen coming from six miles (or six weeks) out.

From Big Government:

The Land of Lincoln may still be licking its wounds–and certain real estate transactions–over Chicago’s losing the Olympics to Rio, but the Obama Administration has delivered up a small consolation prize: the state’s very own federal prison for terrorists. Big Government has received  what is claimed to be a leaked DOJ memo that was allegedly sent yesterday from Eric Holder’s Department of Justice to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Presumably, the inmates at Guantanamo Bay are there because they are believed to be a threat to national security. How moving them into the United States then is a good idea is beyond our powers of reasoning. While we are well aware of the Corleone advice to keep one’s friend close and enemies closer, we’re pretty certain it wasn’t meant as national security advice.

There's a really big "presume" going on with that "presumably" leading off the second graph. The folks at Big Government ignore the fact that hundreds of Gitmo detainees have been released without any charges at all, that many were swept up -- at random -- during the War in Afghanistan under dubious circumstances, that the prison is an affront to our Constitution and makes our country seem contradictory, (oh, and did I mention the fact that these detainees were tortured by the U.S. and hundreds are still being held indefinitely?) but who needs facts when you can take an old story, dress it up and do your best to sound the trumpet on the inevitable transfer of detainees to the U.S. for trial?

The reality is the right has lost this debate when it comes to the Illinois prison situation. Newspapers that once endorsed Republican Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois, blasted him when they heard his fearmongering about the Thomson prison. Justice is coming. It's happening. It's reality. But that won't stop the incessant whining. Oh well. I guess this is a minor price to pay (listening to the moans), if it means SOMEONE is finally held responsible for attacking our country on 9/11. If it means there will finally be a trial and justice will finally be done and the prison at Guantanamo Bay will FINALLY be closed.

Yeah. I guess I can stand a little more whining if it means we're winning.

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