Understanding Government

Thomson (IL) Correctional Facility

President Obama made many pledges during his campaign for president, and one of the most cut-and-dried was his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It hasn’t happened. “Gitmo” still houses 172 suspected terrorists.

In Thomson, Illinois, the fate of the prison in Guantanamo Bay is not the first thing on Jerry “Duke” Hebeler’s mind. Hebeler, village president of Thomson, oversees the town of about 600 that lies 90 miles west of Chicago. (more…)

The dispute over the vacant Thomson Correction Center in rural Northwest Illinois reignited last week as Illinois Republican members of Congress want to make absolutely, positively sure that Barack Obama won’t house current Guantanamo Bay detainees there. U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and Illinois House Republicans signed a letter instructing Obama to officially rule out housing terrorist detainees at Thomson, reports Nicole Thompson of the Chicago Daily Herald. The problem is that there is no problem. Obama, Illinois Congressional Republicans, Illinois Congressional Democrats, state government, and U.S. Dept. of Justice Federal Bureau of Prison officials are in firm agreement that Thomson should be converted to a federal prison, not a terrorist detention facility. So why the fighting? (more…)

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn decided that the best way to end the saga of the Thomson Correctional Center in rural Thomson — once billed as the Guantanamo Bay of Illinois — was to auction off the prison. However, the Chicago Tribune’s Monique Garcia reports that the state held an auction yesterday — and no one participated. (more…)

The Chicago Tribune’s Katherine Sikba has a “Whatever happened to…” story on “Gitmo in Illinois,” the  planned conversion of a correctional center in the village of Thomson into both a federal prison and detention site for terror suspects. (more…)

The House Armed Services Committee just passed next year’s defense spending bill — and unanimously voted not to fund a terrorist detention facility in Thomson, Illinois. Now the Obama administration and Illinois politicians like Gov. Pat Quinn are scrambling to save “Guantanamo in Illinois.”

The Washington Independent’s Spencer Ackerman reports that the administration will send a report to Congress outlining why sending Guantanamo detainees to rural Northwestern Illinois is good national security policy. (more…)