From Gitmo to Illinois

So this interesting little tidbit just came over the news. Apparently the federal government has purchased the former Illinois Department of Corrections, Thompson Correctional Center.

Apparently the administration plans to buy the Illinois prison that at one point was considered for housing Guantanamo prisoners. Administration officials however have denied that they were looking for a new home for Guantanamo inmates.

According to a DOJ official the reason for the purchase was "about public safety and 50 percent overcrowding in high-security prisons.” They insisted the decision to buy Thomson Correctional Center was a move to alleviate overcrowding in federal prisons and create new jobs in the process. 

Why do I feel like I am at the part of Star Wars, a New Hope, where Obi Wan Kenobi waves his hand and tells the Stormtroopers that “these are not the droids you are looking for.”

I would like to say I believe them, but I just don’t. The original plan to purchase Thompson were specifically to house the Gitmo detainees. That plan was met with a fierce backlash among lawmakers who worried it would pose a security risk. Now, we are told that the plan to house Gitmo detainees has been dropped and instead they will house other federal prisoners.

So that being said, is it only me that wonders if we are looking at a proverbial federal shell game? They open Thompson, move inmates from some other facility, say Marion, and then lo and behold they move the Gitmo detainees to Marion……….

If President Obama gets re-elected, I wonder if this post will become prophetic in six months. Remember he pledged, immediately after taking office, that he would shut down the Gitmo. A pledge that stands as one of the president's most glaring unfulfilled promises to his base.

I know what we are being told, but I just can’t shake the feeling that maybe these are the damn droids we are looking for!!