Plan to Move Guantánamo Detainees Faces New Delay

[agentS]

Source: New York Times

Rebuffed this month by skeptical lawmakers when it sought finances to buy a prison in rural Illinois, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with the money to replace the Guantánamo Bay prison.

--snip--
While Mr. Obama has acknowledged that he would miss the Jan. 22 deadline for closing the prison that he set shortly after taking office, the administration appeared to take a major step forward last week when he directed subordinates to move “as expeditiously as possible” to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center, a nearly vacant maximum-security Illinois prison, and to retrofit it to receive Guantánamo detainees. But in interviews this week, officials estimated that it could take 8 to 10 months to install new fencing, towers, cameras and other security upgrades before any transfers take place. Such construction cannot begin until the federal government buys the prison from the State of Illinois.

The federal Bureau of Prisons does not have enough money to pay Illinois for the center, which would cost about $150 million. Several weeks ago, the White House approached the House Appropriations Committee and floated the idea of adding about $200 million for the project to the military spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year, according to administration and Congressional officials.

-snip-
Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is said to have privately expressed doubts to administration officials about the plan. Another member of that committee, Representative Loretta Sanchez, Democrat of California, also raised security and legal questions about the proposal.“Particularly making something on U.S. soil an attraction for Al Qaeda and terrorists to go after — inciting them to attack something on U.S. soil — that’s a problem, and we need to think it through,” Ms. Sanchez said in an interview Tuesday.In the Senate, Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, has argued that the problem with Guantánamo has been its lack of due process rights, not its physical location. He said recently that terrorism suspects “do not belong in our country, they do not belong in our courts, and they do not belong in our prisons.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/us/politics/23gitmo.html?_r=1&hp

---

Thanks for the clusterfuck, Fuhrer Bush! You rock!

The article mentions details on some detainees they're having trouble repatriating to Yemen as well as some progress in closing the prison.

I'm sure there's enough crap on US soil to attract Al Qaeda sleeper cells to attack already, Rep Sanchez. So why haven't they since 9/11?...

The Dems need to grow a spine and the Reps need to grow balls. "The terrorists will be in our backyards!" Shut up, just shut up. Go put some Saran Wrap around your windows. That'll keep ya safe, you conservative fucktards.

It's disappointing to see the deadline not met but at least there is progress being made.

[The Stranger]

1. Loretta Sanchez sounds like a fucking idiot.

How do these people get voted into Congress?

[bdamomma]

2. just really sucks.

bush and cheney knew what they were doing, a$$holes.

[blackbear79]

3. The least of my worries.

I am so pissed off over this health care debacle and the absence of a public option or the extension of medicare that I could give a flying fuck about terrorists in Sunny Cuba. I am also so pissed off about the lack of attention to solving the huge unemployment problem that I could give a shit about those fuckers down in Cuba. Further, the fact that Congress is about to approve the new debt ceiling pisses me off even more that the last thing on my mind is fucking Guantanamo.

Merry Christmas

[PSPS]

4. I think you need a pizza to settle down

These "terrorists" in Guantanamo are mostly poor schmucks who had the "misfortune" of being "fingered" by someone (anyone) with a grudge against them to get bush's $5,000 bounty. But I understand your lack of concern, being that they aren't like "normal" people, right?

[blackbear79]

5. No, that not right.

My concern is for the immediate needs of American citizens.

I am sure there are some poor schmucks who were fingered but the Obama administration has had nearly a year to review cases and I haven't seen the Atty. Gen. take any action other than begin the process to move them to a different jail. So if Obama doesn't really give a shit then why should I? Besides, I would rather be in Cuba in January than Illinois.
We all know to move from Gitmo to Illinois is symbolic. They are all still in prision.

In the mean time what I do care about is this ridiculous health care bill that has wasted time and precious political capital and has no chance of helping me afford my obscenely high premiums. I am angry about a ineffective stimulus bill that has not helped my neighbors find jobs and I am horrified about the debt we are leaving our kids.

So the bottom line is I care most about us, the citizens of the United States. Sorry if that makes me a bad person.

And you are right, a pizza might help.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Not much help

but Happy Christmas anyway.