Guantanamo Bay Inmates Heading to Illinois

According to recent reports, an unused prison is going to be upgraded to house suspects previously held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, says the Wall Street Journal:

A largely unused prison in rural Illinois will be retrofitted with better security to hold military tribunals for Guantanamo Bay prisoners and to house detainees who may never be put on trial, Obama administration officials said.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday ordered the federal government to acquire the state prison in Thomson, Ill., and turn it into a high-security federal facility to house federal prisoners and about 100 Guantanamo detainees. The move is an important step in the president’s effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, which administration officials now estimate may not happen until a year after the Jan. 22, 2010, deadline Mr. Obama set.

USA Today says:

n a letter to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, top administration officials including Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the plan “part of the president’s aggressive posture in the fight against al-Qaeda.”

The decision to buy a nearly vacant state prison in Thomson, Ill., to house alleged terrorists is the latest step in Obama’s effort to close the Guantanamo detention center, a symbol for detainee abuses under George W. Bush.

White House national security adviser Jim Jones said closing the island prison will rob terrorist organizations of a tool used to recruit “warriors of the future.”

The LA Times says:

There are 210 detainees now in custody at Guantanamo, about 90 of whom have been cleared for transfer back to their native countries.

Aides to Obama said they do not want to start work on the prison until Congress approves funding for the project and agrees to the transfer of suspects for detention.

One Democratic official on Capitol Hill, who requested anonymity when discussing administration plans, said the security upgrades needed to turn the maximum-security prison into a super-max facility could take eight months or more. It has widely been assumed that the administration will not make its Jan. 22 deadline for closing Guantanamo.

Under the plan laid out Tuesday, as many as 75 detainees could be sent before military commissions at Thomson. Officials estimated that the total population of the detention center would be less than 100 inmates