Gitmo II

Many Illinoisans no doubt voted for Barack Obama in the expectation that he would bring home the proverbial bacon. No, his Chicago Olympic bid was a flop, but he has arranged a nice consolation prize for us. He is putting the ribbon on the Guantanamo terror suspects and shipping 100 of them to a nearly empty, "state-of-the-art" prison in the city of Thomson, a struggling town 150 miles west of Chicago.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin trumpets the "good jobs" this transfer will engender, saying 1,500 positions will be created locally, on top 1,500 federal ones (mostly military personnel) that will go to the town of 559 on the Mississippi.

Concerning the super-max prison, why is there a nearly empty, state-of-the-art prison in Thomson, anyway? Are we running out of criminals? And how state of the art can it really be if it is already eight years old?

Locals are all for the transfer, hoping the influx of people and money will save Thomson. (By the way, that's an amazing 30-1 worker to detainee ratio.)

I wonder, however, if turning this city into an armed camp is a good risk, or a bad riverboat gamble. Critics, such as Congressman Mark Kirk, worry that putting the Gitmo detainees there will make Thomson and its environs a magnet for terrorists, and there is no way to guarantee that it won't. The Gitmo suspects may not have to escape the maximum security facility to wreak havoc on this small town.

The administration says it will conduct military trials for some of the suspects on site, while holding others "indefinitely." Excuse me, but isn't that what President Bush was doing? Obama is apparently continuing the Bush policy, but at a much higher cost and in a less secure location. Makes sense to me!

This prisoner transfer from Gitmo will not mollify international terrorists, who will still seek the destruction of America. This unwise decision is merely a sop to Obama's leftwing base. You can be sure they will be nowhere to be found if something goes wrong.