Gitmo Detainees Coming to Thomson, Illinois

It's official. After weeks of prison tours by federal officials and hysterical grandstanding by politicians, the federal government has finally chosen a new home for detainees (Chicago Public Radio) currently housed at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay maximum security facility: Thomson, Illinois.

Roughly 100 detainees suspected of terrorism-related offenses, many of them scooped up during the initial invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, will be held at the new state prison. Thomson is in a remote part of northwestern Illinois, about 150 miles from Chicago.

Opposition to the plan (Daily Herald) by Republican representatives and Republican gubernatorial candidates in Illinois is predictable, since President Obama made the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison part of his campaign platform. Not to pick sides, but opposing something just because the opposing party supports it just reeks of sour grapes.

Never mind the fact that domestic violent offenders--i.e. rapists, child molestors, serial killers--are regularly placed in the same type of confinement, usually without incident. But just listen to the hyperbole coming out of the mouths of these politicians:

"I think it's a very bad idea to bring the mastermind of 9-11 to Thomson. I have no doubt we can keep him there and he'll never get out. But no one can tell me there's no risk."

That was Attorney General and Republican candidate for Illinois governor Jim Ryan. It's not hard to figure out why such fear-mongering is a politically shrewd move.

The Thomson Correctional Center (ABC News) is a maximum security prison built in 2001 but barely used because of budget constraints. The embrace of the plan by Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Roland Burris (both Democrats) was just as predictable as GOP opposition.

So if you want an unbiased opinion of whether or not it's a good move for Illinois, you'll have to ask someone outside of Springfield or Washington, D.C. As to ethical issues surrounding the work of criminal defense attorneys representing terrorism supects--that's a whole other can of worms.