Gitmo in the Heartland?
This weekend President Obama's administration announced that it was looking at possible moving Guantanamo Bay prison detainees to a high security prison in Illinois. It makes sense to relocate some prisoners due to the over crowding of facilities in Gitmo, but is moving them into the middle of American Turf a smart Idea? High Security prisons are nothing new in Illinois, the state has several, but some people have the opinion that placing a high number of Al-Qaeda inmates in Illinois would raise the threat of terrorism considerably. It is not to far from Chicago, which is already at risk because it is a large metropolis city.Personally, it concerns me a bit because it is only about 100 miles away from my hometown. A few years back there were many incidents of large jail breaks in Illinois. One advantage of housing the terrorists in the Thompson Correctional Center is that it would create many jobs in the area..... Historically towns housing prisons have depended on the facilities to drive the local economy. When they are vaccant or closed down, the town all but dies and people move away.
But is it worth the risk?
No matter where the detainees are transferred to, some town in the U.S. is going to have the risk, burden and pressure of housing such dangerous criminals. Here is a small excerpt from the article:
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, whose district covers suburban Chicago, circulated a letter addressed to President Obama to Illinois leaders Saturday, opposing the possible transfer of detainees. The letter says that doing so would turn metropolitan Chicago into "ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization."
As home to Chicago's Willis (formerly Sears) Tower -- the nation's tallest building -- "we should not invite Al Qaeda to make Illinois its number one target," said the statement by Kirk, who is running for the same Senate seat once held by Obama.
"The United States spent more than $50 million to build the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to keep terrorists away from U.S. soil. Al Qaeda terrorists should stay where they cannot endanger American citizens."
Here is a link to the Chicago Tribune's Article:http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-gitmo-illinois-15-nov15,0,247250.story
Here is a link to the article on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/14/illinois.prison.gitmo/index.html
What Are Your Opinions????
Posts
As a person who was born and raised in Chicago, I definitely disagree with having Al Qaeda prisoners anywhere within my friends and family. As mentioned in the article, it's not far from the Sears tower (it'll always be the Sears Tower to me) and that being the nations largest building is just asking for trouble. Why put fuel to the fire?
ReplyDeleteAlthough it does bring up an interesting idea of keep your friends close but your enemies closer.