The Talk On Thomson

December 18, 2009  |  Posted by Danielle Belton

Here's a round-up of what newspapers are saying about the Thomson prison and the eventual transfer of Gitmo detainees:

From The New York Times:

Moving the prisoners does not negate the Geneva Convention’s requirements about the conditions in which they are held, and Mr. Obama must not simply institutionalize indefinite detention in Illinois. But it is impossible to credibly repair this nation’s justice system while it operates a shameful symbol of illegality and inhumanity.

Republicans offered the usual charge that Mr. Obama is soft on terrorism. Senator John Cornyn of Texas said housing detainees in American cells “will put our citizens in unnecessary danger.” We wondered if he didn’t know that there are more than 350 people currently serving sentences for terrorism in American prisons — including the plotters of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and a former aide of Osama bin Laden.

Democrats in Congress voted this week against providing money to close Guantánamo. The Democrats and some Republicans, like Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who demanded the closing of Guantánamo for years need to step up. They can start by approving money to acquire and refit the Illinois prison. Mr. Obama needs to make much more of a personal effort to keep this important pledge. Guantánamo needs to be closed.

From The Miami Herald:

Every day, U.S. prisons hold watch over the nation's most dangerous, most ruthless and most cunning individuals. Some of them have no regard for the law and no respect for human life. Some of the most violent are held in Supermax prisons. None has ever escaped.

Even before the 9/11 attacks, international terrorists were being incarcerated without incident in U.S. prisons. And since 9/11, more than 150 others have been safely held in U.S. facilities.

Among the highly dangerous inmates now in Supermax facilities are Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 9/11 ``20th hijacker,'' who is serving a life sentence; Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who helped plan the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera, former chief assassin for Colombia's Medellin Cartel.

All presumably have networks of equally dangerous associates who they wish would help them escape. Yet this has not happened, because we make sure it cannot happen.

From The Chicago Tribune:

The Obama administration needed to find a secure place to house the prisoners in the U.S., and it found one in Thomson, a state-of-the-art maximum security prison built to replace aging lockups elsewhere in Illinois. State officials have never had the backbone to close those other facilities because union workers don't want to move. So Thomson sits mostly empty, eight years after it was completed, a $150 million white elephant. Selling it to the feds, for the right price, sounds like a win-win.

But the fear mongers want no part of it. To hear them talk, Obama and Quinn are painting a big red bull's eye on the Willis Tower, 150 miles away. Put those prisoners in Thomson and the next thing you know, their terrorist friends will stage a jailbreak and they'll all take over the nuclear power plant in nearby Cordova. Think we're exaggerating? Kirk's campaign Web site says Obama's plan would make Illinois "ground zero for jihadists" and that detainees should "stay where they cannot endanger American citizens." McKenna says Quinn is trying "to bring terrorists to our neighborhoods in the name of job creation."

You know what that sounds like: Not In My Back Yard.

There's no good reason to fear those prisoners. Hundreds of international terrorists (and a lot of other scary people) are currently housed in U.S. prisons. Nobody has ever escaped from a federal super-max prison. There already are 34 inmates doing time in Illinois on terrorism charges, and the Willis Tower is still standing. We just checked.

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