Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk, and his dog, are tough on terrorism

The Washington Post’s Perry Bacon reports on an encouraging Senate vote for the Obama administration: a vote yesterday failed to deny the Obama administration funds to modify U.S. prisons so they can hold re-settled Guantanamo detainees.  This means the Senate is OK with projects like rebuilding the maximum security facility in the village of Thomson, Illinois in order to house detainees.

Some Congressional Republicans, though, are not giving up and have proposed the “Keep Terrorists Out of America Act.” The bill would require a state’s governor and legislator to approve the shipment of Guanatanamo detainees to the state. The name of the bill is kind of dumb: there are already hundreds of terrorists in American maximum security prisons, including 35 in Illinois. Also, the bill would probably not impact the Thomson plan since Gov. Pat Quinn is enthusiastically on board and a Democratic-controlled state legislature should be as well.

But Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk — the likely 2010 Republican candidate for the vacant Illinois Senate seat now (less than ably) filled by Roland Burris — is persistent. Kirk also wants to fund a study of the safety of moving Guantanamo detainees to Thomson. I kind of like that idea: Kirk and other Illinois Republicans repeatedly insinuate that the good people of Thomson will be victims of terrorist attacks. But are there any national security and terrorism experts who agree, even partly, with this allegation?

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