White House Set to Select Illinois Prison for Terror Detainees

[웃 910]

White House Set to Select Illinois Prison for Terror Detainees

By John McCormick Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration will announce today that it has picked the Thomson Correctional Center in western Illinois to house some detainees now held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an administration official said.

President Barack Obama has directed the federal government to proceed with the acquisition of the prison 150 miles west of Chicago to house federal inmates and a limited number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners, the official said.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Senator ####### Durbin will be in Washington today to be briefed at the White House on the decision, Quinn’s office said.

News that the administration was considering the mostly vacant state prison for detainees broke last month. Obama has vowed to close the detention facility in Cuba and needed to find another place for their confinement.

The prison along the Iowa-Illinois border would house fewer than 100 of Guantanamo’s 215 detainees, Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber and a promoter of the idea, has said.

Top Democratic politicians in Illinois have backed the plan because it could add more than 2,000 jobs to the area. Republicans have opposed it because they say it presents too many security threats.

The federal government would acquire the state prison and run it as a federal penitentiary, leasing a portion of it to the Department of Defense for the terrorism suspects, administration officials have previously said.

Near-Empty Prison

Illinois completed construction of the prison in 2001 to house its most dangerous inmates, although a state budget crisis has left it mostly unused, with about 140 inmates in the 1,600 available cells.

Representatives of the Department of Defense, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security toured the Thomson prison in November.

A preliminary administration analysis estimated the project would inject more than $1 billion into the area’s economy over the first four years, adding between 2,340 and 3,250 jobs. The spending would come from operation of the prison, construction expenditures, salaries and visitors to the area, according to the analysis.

The unemployment rate in Carroll County, where the facility is located, is 10.5 percent, Quinn’s office said.

To contact the reporter on this story: John McCormick in Chicago at Jmccormick16@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 15, 2009 00:07 EST

[slim 1,533]

A preliminary administration analysis estimated the project would inject more than $1 billion into the area’s economy over the first four years, adding between 2,340 and 3,250 jobs. The spending would come from operation of the prison, construction expenditures, salaries and visitors to the area, according to the analysis.

Is this what they meant by "shovel-ready" projects?

I wonder why this is going to rural Illinois and not somewhere that really needed it like Detroit. Where did you say Obama's from? Where's Oprah from?

[Nagishkaw 510]

I wonder why this is going to rural Illinois and not somewhere that really needed it like Detroit. Where did you say Obama's from? Where's Oprah from?

[Niels Bohr 72]

Wusses. Guns and all talk, but, scared out of the wits.