Unclear future for Thomson
Friday, May 21, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A powerful US House committee appears to have put a big brake on President Obama’s plan to transfer Gitmo detainees to the shuttered Thomson prison…
The House Armed Services Committee has dealt a blow to President Obama’s hopes to shutter the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by unanimously approving legislation that would prohibit creating a detention center inside the United States.
That doesn’t appear to mean that the feds won’t buy Thomson for another purpose, but things are once again looking grim for the people in that area who just want to get that facility open. And the committee’s move doesn’t completely kill off the president’s idea, either…
The White House had no official comment on the committee’s action, but an official noted that the National Defense Authorization Act doesn’t entirely reject the idea of jailing Guantanamo prisoners in the U.S.
“The chairman’s mark also required a report, due by April 2011, from the [secretary of defense] on the merits, costs and risks of using any proposed facility in the U.S. or territories. So the issue will be revisited,” the official said.
However, if the White House accepts such a report as a prerequisite to closure, it will mean abandoning Obama’s prediction that the facility could close by the end of 2010. He had earlier vowed to close Gitmo in his first year in office but saw that prospect fall away because of bipartisan congressional resistance to bringing prisoners to U.S. soil.
At the very least, this puts off action for another year or so.
- Leroy - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 10:38 am:
So all the hubris back when this idea was first floated *was* warranted….
Go figure.
- Harry - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 10:56 am:
Looks like all of the House Democrats abandoned the Durbin/Quinn position.
- Ooops - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 10:58 am:
Glad to know Rep. Hare has influence to bring all those promised jobs to NW Illinois.
- dupage dan - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 11:03 am:
Fine by me. The real Gitmo works just fine.
The prison should be opened. Either as a state institution or a federal one. Just not Gitmo/Illinois.
- cassandra - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 11:03 am:
Just as we may well need a Republican governor to put through an income tax increase, we’ll need a Republican prez to close Guantanamo. The national Dems feel vulnerable on the terrorism issue and they are terrified of being blamed for some national security incident, any national security incident. Don’t look for Gitmo to be closed during a Dem presidency. Don’t look for KSM to be tried on the US mainland either.
- Ghost - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 11:11 am:
IL desperatly needs to bring this prison online and x-fer inmatd from overcrowded prisons. In fact we need to look at building or rebuidling a number of our long outdated penal facilities.
- VanillaMan - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 11:14 am:
This was never a winner. It was a “hail Mary” pass by an administration who made a campaign promise without thinking. What was promised in the heat of a competitive primary needed to have been walked-back once the nomination was secure.
Instead, an inexperienced administration felt that a political opportunity was easily attained, so grandstanded instead of investigated. Once they started researching the many sides of this issue, they should have been mature enough to walk-back on this campaign promise and not paint themselves into the corner they found themselves in, even further.
We’ve seen this before with new administrations on other issues, so it came as a surprise when Quinn and Durbin announced this backroom deal regarding Thomson, showing that the President and his people were still seriously pursuing this campaign promise.
It was never a winner. The deal involved too many people with real world experiences in this area to have them simply clam up and take this risk.
Quinn has learned the hard lesson that you don’t give felons your campaign by handling incarceration issues that free them and then expects them to no longer engage in felonious activities because when they do - they hijack your campaign.
The good news is that other politicians know better, and are disinterested in doing something similar regarding terrorists. So, yesterday, they have once again derailed the President’s plan to fulfill his campaign pledge made during the heat of the 2008 Primary. Cooler heads are understanding that the political risks taken are too great in comparison to not meeting the promise.
The Administration needs to do what it has been doing on other similar issues. That is, walk-back on this naive promise. We expect this. Get it over with.
Finally, did Quinn spend the $350 million already? Because we ain’t gettin’ it this way.
- Cincinnatus - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 11:17 am:
Obama will never, ever, ever, ever, ever admit a mistake. Ever.
- Rich Miller - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 11:22 am:
Cincinnatus, you’re kidding, right? For months, the Right has hammered Obama for weakness by admitting to too many mistakes and apologizing too much. Click here.
- plutocrat03 - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 11:33 am:
In the financial abyss the State is in this is probably a blessing in disguise.
The rosy promises were just made for political purposes and like they are empty.
As the state starts recovering, the prison will be needed to take care of the needs of the department of corrections. Lets move on.
- Crystal Clear - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 11:35 am:
Here is another example of why government should not take the lead to “create” jobs. It is quite one thing to need a prison (either state or federal), but to believe that government projects should drive the economy in a given area, here once again is why it doesn’t work.
The next time a politician (D or R) says this project or that project will create ____ jobs, they are not only puffing, but probably fibbing.
- Cincinnatus - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 11:35 am:
You must mean Obama’s “Apology Tour” where he apologizes for America’s mistakes, right? You illustrate my point exactly, Obama will admit to others’ mistakes, perceived or real, but never his own.
- 47th Ward - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 12:27 pm:
Cinci,
You’ve just revealed yourself to be a partisan tool of the highest order. You will never, ever, ever, ever see the truth through the partisan sunglasses you’re wearing.
Thankfully, there’s teh Google for the rest of us.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7005400.ece
Dude, you should admit you’re dead wrong or you’ll lose whatever credibility you thought you had here.
- 47th Ward - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 12:33 pm:
Here are a couple of more, Cinci, in case his using the freaking State of the Union speech to admit some of his mistakes isn’t high profile enough for you:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/04/obama.daschle/index.html
http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200902/1233908908.html
- Stooges - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 12:38 pm:
I know people from Thomson and I tried to warn them not to get too elated or too angry about any of this prison business. The state and federal governments put the cart way before the horse on this one. These clowns affect people’s lives and shrug it off as no big deal. Durbin and Quinn should visit Carroll County and apologize for getting everybody all stirred up for nothing.
- Cincinnatus - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 12:44 pm:
Tool that I am, I fail to see how your linked article disproves the fact that Obama, in his arrogance, does not ever admit any errors in his policies.
Back to our topic, do you feel that the Obama proposal to move Gitmo detainees to Thomson was a super-tremendous idea (in which case the overwhelmingly Democrat House committee would have approved the recent proposal), or a bad idea which appears to have been proposed as a result of Obama’s acceptance of the left’s position that Gitmo should be closed at any cost? Your answer here will be telling. If indeed you can bring yourself to admit that Obama at least handled the Thomson issue in a ham-handed manner (even if you don’t think that Obama’s Gitmo proposals were naive at best), which has been obvious for many months, together we’ll wait and see if he can admit he is wrong, or at least lacks support for his idea.
Unlike YOU, I feel I have no earned credibility here, especially with the liberal drones like yourself, and those in your arrogance you think you represent. And sure, if it’s on Google, it must be correct…
- Steve-O - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 12:45 pm:
Good. It was going to be a huge waste of money to transport them here, as well as a huge waste of time. Keep them at Gitmo, where we control the place just fine and dandy.
- Johnny USA - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 12:46 pm:
I remember quite a few commenters here at Capitol Fax got torn a new one for suggesting “perhaps we should take the idea of putting terrorists in our backyard a little more slowly, and think through the consequences carefully”
- Sen. Jeff Schoenberg - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 1:04 pm:
Rich, One important fact that we learned during the Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability hearing process was that the Defense Department was never going to purchase Thomson from the state; that role has always been delineated publicly and privately to be the responsibility of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which has severe overcrowding on its own. According to the head of the federal Bureau of Prisons, there have been an additional 7,000 federal inmates added to their base population in the past year, and they have an acute need for additional maximum security space independent of the policy decision on whether or not to house Gitmo detainees in the U.S. If there were to be a change in federal policy allowing such a transfer, the Defense Department would be leasing a wing @ Thomson from the federal Bureau of Prisons. What these most developments now tell us is that Defense won’t be leasing from the Bureau of Prisons any time soon, and that Thomson will need to be exclusively used for maximum security domestic prisoners. If the feds can’t complete the Thomson purchase in Illinois, they’re only going to build another super-maximum security penal facility in another state to handle the federal overcrowding problem. That’s what ultimately prompted a bipartisan vote of approval by CGFA.
- Ghost - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 1:15 pm:
Senator did CFGA ever consider the deplorable condition of Stateville, menard, and Joliet? Not to mention teir current overcrowding, and the lack of any plan by DOC to refurbish or replace our outdated an rundonw prisons.
CFGA is just kicking the problem of IL prisons down the road by divesting us of amuch needed new prison. o we really need to escalate to a prison crisis to get people to address this.
on another note:
=== ….why government should not take the lead to “create” jobs….====
The governemnt job creation bills were the primary economic engine which pulled us out of the recession. The reliance on the private sector to save us delayed our recovery.
I just do not follow this pah that saya all govt activity is bad and all private buisness acivity is good. In the middle, a combination of both working together to create and support the market is the best formualtion.
- Stooges - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 2:09 pm:
Senator Schoenberg - did the CGFA approve the purchase of the Thomson prison, and what is the likelihood that Thomson becomes a federal prison, with or without Gitmo detainees?
- Crystal Clear - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 2:38 pm:
===The governemnt job creation bills were the primary economic engine which pulled us out of the recession.===
Just exactly what recession have we been pulled out of? Unemployment still high, markets tanking, more foreclosures and all time high in public debt.
Oh yeah, I feel great about the economy and the recession is definitely over.
- Rich Miller - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 2:44 pm:
CC, just about every economist claims the recession has ended.
However, if you’d like to pull back spending now, try looking at what happened when Japan did that, or when FDR did it.
- Crystal Clear - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 2:57 pm:
Rich, there has been a significant change within the last 2 or 3 weeks with the European economy, which I imagine will change some of those economists opinion. Also, if you ask those who don’t have a job, they don’t think the recession is over and the true number is 1 out of 6.
The point is, bloviating pols and job creation is mostly bloviating.
- VanillaMan - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 3:11 pm:
You’ve just revealed yourself to be a partisan tool of the highest order. You will never, ever, ever, ever see the truth through the partisan sunglasses you’re wearing.
Thanks 47th. We all know you are the enlightment for non-partisanship we all know and trust.
I trust you to demonstrate the political spin in one direction, to counter the political spin from the other. I really value your postings in that manner. I read your stuff like it is coming from DNC spinmeisters themselves. You are like a compass to me! But instead of pointing North, you point Left.
Keep up the good work, and don’t write anymore about being nonpartisan, or I’ll have to stop depending upon you.
I’m still trying to get over the “I’m not Maverick” stuff from McCain.
- 47th Ward - Friday, May 21, 10 @ 4:42 pm:
VM,
Cinci’s new here. He posted something dumb, and then double-downed on it. Even you don’t write ridiculous, gratuitous nonsense you know to be false just to score a partisan point.
But if you want to defend Cinci’s point, that Obama only apologizes for America, and never, ever, ever admits he makes mistakes, by all means, have at it my friend.
- VanillaMan - Saturday, May 22, 10 @ 3:28 pm:
NO way! Cinci is the kind of person you want on the opposition.