Critics of Thomson prison proposal should read this
November 26th, 2009 at 10:54am Pat Cunningham
 
 The Chicago Tribune offers a WORTHY COUNTERPOINT to the lame arguments made by various Nervous Nellies concerning the proposal to transfer detainees from Gitmo to an unused prison in northwest Illinois.
 An excerpt:
 The roster of 449 inmates at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility — dubbed the Supermax — includes a Sept. 11 conspirator, Zacarias Moussaoui; the would-be “shoe bomber,” Richard Reid; the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef; and a former Chicago gang member accused of aiding terrorists, Jose Padilla.
 The cells here also house the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, of south suburban Evergreen Park, and Timothy McVeigh’s accomplice in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Terry Nichols.
 But if having terrorists imprisoned a 10-minute walk from your home is a safety risk, there’s no sign of that in Florence, Colo., a rural community about 110 miles south of Denver.
 ”We still leave our doors unlocked at night,” former Mayor Bart Hall said.
Entry Filed under: Thomson prison
8 Comments Add your own
1. roger | November 26th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Happy Thanksgiving to all!!
2. Paula | November 26th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I don’t think those opposed to bringing in GITMO terrorists to Thomson are necessarily concerned about escapes but about individual jhiadists who would be attracted to make trouble for an area where there is the largest concentration of their imprisoned comrades in one location. Keeping them in GITMO surrounded by an ocean on one side and Castro’s Cuba on the other is best for our homeland security. Also, most of the terrorists in federal prison do not have followers who are willing to die for their cause in order to enter the afterlife with 72 virgins at their side. In addition, I don’t think Thomson is ready for all the protesters who will come to the prison to voice their opinoin on the indefinite detention of about 75-100 of the GITMO terrorists who will not be brought to trial.
3. Mr. Funfsinn | November 27th, 2009 at 12:35 am
“The roster of 449 inmates at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility”
- How can they compare Thomson to that place? The Northwest Daily Herald disagrees. But the Chicago Tribune endorsed Barack Obama for President. It is not a “Republican” newspaper. Second, they should have no fear about moving this facility to Chicago since I am not sure which hospitals will treat terrorists in northwest Illinois without those hospitals jumping to the top of any list. Scary!
4. Samal | November 27th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Wow, the Trib and Apple can’t tell the difference between a leader who is a commander/strategist and a lone nut or foot soldiers.
No wonder they back Barack Obama.
5. Dave Barrett | November 27th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Huh?!?
There are Al Qaeda terrorist imprisoned in prisons all around the world, some of them for more than 15 years. When has Al Qaeda ever mounted an attack on a prison or even talked about planning one?
The wingnuts in this thread can’t tell the difference between a movie and real life. No wonder they are right-wing loonies!
6. snuss | November 27th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
But, other than Oba-Mao’s political pandering, what reason is there to move Gitmo detainees to Thompson? We invested millions to upgrade those prison facilities, and to construct state-of-the-art courtrooms for miltary tribunals. They are perfectly suited for this purpose, so, why not continue to use them?
7. joe | November 28th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Why not just let them go. Keep the top ten bad guys locked up and spread the rest around. Hopefully next time they get shot instead of caught. Chances are they won’t even be trusted by their own people. Let them handle the executions.
8. Paula | November 29th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
To answer Mr. Barrett’s question — doing some searching on the Internet, I came across some stories about al Qaeda jailbreaks in Afghanistan and Iraq. But then an article from today’s Washington Post came up — “Many of those imprisoned (in Yemen) for orchestrating the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 Americans sailors, have escaped…Since the Cole bombing, al Qaeda militants have staged dozens of attacks, including a 2006 jailbreak from a central prison in the capital, Sanna. The fugitivies included Nasser al-Wahishi, who became leader of the Arabian Peninsula branch of al-Qaeda. Last year, his group orchestrated car bombings outside the U.S. Embassy, killing 16 people…”
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