Conservatives Endorse Plan to Bring GITMO Detainees to US

by: Richard Allen Smith

Mon Nov 16, 2009 at 15:09:47 PM EST

The prison has 1,600 cells but only currently houses about 150 inmates. More than enough room at the inn for the less than 300 detainees remaining at GITMO. Not only is the facility large enough to hold the detainees, NIMBY be damned, Thompson citizens are in favor of it as well:

   News that the federal government seems interested in transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Thomson Correctional Center was greeted warmly in this small, rural farm town along the Iowa border.

   After holding out hope that the sprawling $145 million prison might improve the economic conditions in this remote area of the state, residents say any prisoners would be a welcomed sight.

   "It would help the businesses here, and God knows we could use that," said Kay Lawton, 59, a Thomson resident. "It doesn't matter to me who they bring here."

   "A murderer is a murderer no matter where he's from," [Thomson Village President Jerry] Hebeler said. "That's the way I look at it." [...]

   "As long as it's safe and we're protected, I'm comfortable with it," Hebeler said. "Maybe this is something that will put us on the map."

Of course, a chorus of disapproval will pretend they know what's good for Thompson better than Thomson residents, with Republican Reps. Don Manzullo and Mark Kirk already engaging in pant-wetting hysteria. But three prominent conservatives have already endorsed the proposal:

Republicans in Congress are gearing up to fight a new White House effort to relocate detainees at Guantanamo Bay to a prison facility in Illinois. But on Sunday, a group of highly respected conservative figures lent their support to the transfer, calling it necessary to "preserve national security" while simultaneously avoiding "sweeping and radical departures from an American constitutional tradition."

In a joint statement prepared by the Constitution Project, David Keene, founder of American Conservative Union, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and former representative and presidential candidate Bob Barr say moving suspected terrorists to the Thomson, Illinois prison facility, "makes good sense." Taxpayers, they note, have already invested $145 million in the facility, which has been "little used." And the surrounding community, they add, could benefit from increased employment once the prison becomes filled.

"The scaremongering about these issues should stop," they add, noting that there is "absolutely no reason to fear that prisoners will escape or be released into their communities."

What the endorsement from Norquist, Barr and Keene illustrates is that those opposed to the idea are doing nothing but engaging in a fear-mongering pander for political gain, not to mention that they possess an apparent lack of faith in the ability of Thompson's citizens to secure their correctional facility.