After months of listening to the Republican’s fear-mongering nonsense that bringing Gitmo detainees to American soil would lead to terrorist attacks, President Obama has finally caught a break. Obama will announce today that the federal government will acquire the Thomson Correctional Center in a small town in Illinois, to house terrorist detainees from Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. This move is a major step towards reaching Obama’s goal of closing the controversial Guantánamo Bay prison.
Gov. Patrick J. Quinn of Illinois and Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), will be briefed about the administration’s plan at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. Both Illinois officials support the government’s move to purchase the prison to use it to house maximum security prisoners and terrorist detainees, as a job creating strategy. The supermax prison has been empty, since it was constructed in 2001 with a price tag to taxpayers of about $120 million.
Illinois Republicans, including Reps. Donald Manzullo and Mark Steven Kirk condemned the government’s plans, claiming housing terrorists in the state’s supermax prison would prompt terrorists to attack Illinois. But the majority of residents in Thompson support the transfer of terrorist detainees to their town, which has been hit with job losses.
And the Obama administration makes the case that the transfer of detainees would actually make the US more secure, because the abuses that occurred at Guantánamo during the Bush administration, were used as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.
Liz Cheney should be appearing on Fox News with her offensive fear-mongering soon, condemning the transfer of Gitmo prisoners to the Thompson facility and condoning the torture methods used at Guantánamo.
What else would you expect from the hide-under-the-bed GOP? (aka we-fear-everything GOP)
No comments:
Post a Comment