Once again, the title says it all. Obama has set the Guantanamo Bay-closing deadline for January 2010. All those prisoners need to go somewhere. And it has been decided that as many as 100 Gitmo inmates could be transferred to a prison in Thompson, Illinois. The residents there are surprisingly happy because they believe that this transfer will bring some business to their town. "I'll have lots of guards coming by for their bait" said Todd Baker, who owns a "bait and tackle" shop.
Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn are expected to meet with the White House to talk the whole thing over. Quinn said that this transfer could provide up to 2,000 jobs and $1 billion in federal money to the area!
What do you folks think about all of this?
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5 comments:
in all honesty, i have not been following the guantanamo bay business very carefully, so my knowledge about the issue is pretty limited. however, i'm not so sure i would be so happy about the gitmo prisoners if they were moved to san mateo. i understand that the residents of thompson may welcome the business, but i feel that my fear would probably weigh out any happiness potential business might bring. after all, these prisoners have committed some of the worst crimes in the world.
But that's the thing, Sabrina, because Guantanimo Bay is not in the United States and is therefore not subject to the Constitution or restricted by habeus corpus, the prisoners may not have committed any crime at all.
I think moving the detainees to somewhere in the United States is a good idea for a two-fold purpose. The first, being the reasons stated in the original post. The second, now that it is within the US, the human rights violations that were suspected of being perpetrated there would be much harder to commit as it would be subject to US law rather than easily ignored UN resolutions and the Gevena conventions.
I agree with Joe, that this two-fold purpose of relocating Gitmo detainees is a good idea. But is increasing the criminals in the Thompson prison by 100 really going to provide 2,000 jobs and $1 billion in federal money in the area?? I'm sketch about this. I feel that they numbers are over exaggerated. I believe that this transfer won't have a large economic impact in the state of Illinois. But Joe's second point still makes it a good enough reason to move the inmates.
Joe- Exactly! The transfer will also benefit the prisoners as well, since they can't be tortured here.
Brian- Good point! I have no idea how 100 prisoners will bring so much money to the town.
The prisoners being moved to Illinois could be a pro or con. It probably will help business with the guards and such, but do you really want to live next to a prison?
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