Gitmo Controversy Comes to Thomson

Not surprisingly, the administration's decision to move about 100 of the prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to a maximum-security prison in the little Illinois town of Thomson has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum. There is validity to these criticisms, but the decision looks more like a least-worst choice than a disaster.

The Thomson Correctional Center in northwestern Illinois is a state maximum-security prison, opened in 2001 but never fully utilized because of state budget issues. The administration wants to buy the 1,600-bed facility and use part of it for general federal prisoners, while the Defense Department will run one section of it for prisoners from Guantanamo, who are to be isolated from the rest of the prison population.

Critics from the right argue that bringing the Gitmo prisoners onto U.S. soil could make a small rural town a target for future terrorist attacks.

Critics from the left complain that holding prisoners indefinitely without trial just changes the location of Guantanamo, not what makes it objectionable.

There's a possibility that Thomson could become a potential target for terrorists. But maximum-security prisons are not exactly soft targets, and small rural towns buttressed by 3,000 federal security personnel are not the best environment for terrorists.

As for the complaint that keeping people locked up without charging them with any offense is a violation of our constitutional traditions and the rule of law, of course it is. But it should have become abundantly clear by now that the Obama administration — more vulnerable than the Bushies to charges of being soft on terrorism — is not about to give some of these people trials.

Justifiably or not, Guantanamo has become a symbol terrorists have used for recruiting. Closing it is important, but the latest brouhaha shows once again that it won't be easy.

REPRINTED FROM THE KINSTON FREE PRESS

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM