 Administration officials
as well as Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn
will make an official announcement at the White House.Officials
from both the White House and Durbin's office confirmed that
President Barack Obama had directed the government to acquire
Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town near the
Mississippi River about 150 miles from Chicago. The officials spoke
on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting Tuesday's
announcement.
A Durbin aide said the facility would house federal inmates and
no more than 100 detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
The facility in Thomson had emerged as a clear front-runner after
Illinois officials, led by Durbin, enthusiastically embraced the
idea of turning a near-dormant prison over to federal officials.
The White House has been coy about its selection process, but on
Friday a draft memo that leaked to a conservative Web site seemed to
indicate officials were homing in on Thomson.
The Thomson Correctional Center was one of several potential
sites evaluated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to potentially
house detainees from the Navy-run prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Officials with other prisons, including Marion, Ill., Hardin, Mont.,
and Florence, Colo., have said they would welcome the jobs that
would be created by the new inmates.
Closing Guantanamo is a top priority for Obama, and he signed an
executive order hours into his presidency directing that the process
of closing the prison begin. Obama has said he wants terrorism
suspects transferred to American soil so they can be tried for their
suspected crimes.
The Thomson Correctional Center was built by Illinois in 2001 as
a state prison with the potential to house maximum-security inmates.
Local officials hoped it would improve the local economy, providing
jobs to a hard-hit community. State budget problems, however, have
kept the 1,600-cell prison from ever fully opening. At present, it
houses about 200 minimum-security inmates.
Obama has faced some resistance to the idea of housing terrorism
suspects in the United States, but in Thomson many have welcomed the
prospect as a potential economic engine.
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Thomson Village President Jerry Hebeler was asleep when the word
came that Thomson had been chosen.
"It's news to me, but then I'm always the last to know anything,"
Hebeler said Monday night of the news affecting his town of 450
residents. "It'll be good for the village and the surrounding area,
especially with all the jobs that have been lost here."
But Hebeler said he wouldn't rejoice until "the ink is on the
paper," because previous plans for increased use of the nearly empty
prison have fallen through.
Some Illinois officials have not supported the idea. GOP Rep.
Mark Kirk, who is seeking Obama's old Senate seat, said he believes
moving Guantanamo detainees to Illinois will make the state a
greater threat for terrorist attacks. Kirk has lobbied other
officials to contact the White House in opposition to using the
facility.
To be sure, Thomson will not solve all the administration's
Guantanamo-related problems. There still will be dozens of detainees
who are not relocated to Thomson, other legal issues and potential
resistance from Congress.
Thomson is a symbolic step, however, a clear sign that the United
States is working to find a new place to hold detainees from
Guantanamo.
[Associated Press;
HENRY C. JACKSON]
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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