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Last spring, in an interview with 60 Minutes, Barack Obama criticized his predecessor over the detainees at Guantánamo Bay. That wasn't new. What was surprising was one of the arguments the president made. When Steve Kroft pointed out that some of those released had been working to recruit others to jihad, Obama agreed. Well, there's no doubt that we have not done a particularly effective job in sorting through who are truly dangerous individuals that we've got to make sure are not a threat to us, who are folks that we just swept up. A classified Defense Intelligence Agency report...

Do you support the transfer of terror suspects now at the Guantanamo Detention Facility in Cuba to the Thomson Correctional Center in rural Illinois?

Thomson prison: Illinois attorney general rules Gov. Pat Quinn can sell Thomson prisonIllinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Thursday that Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has the authority to sell the state prison that the federal government wants to use for terrorist suspects now at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The legal opinion by the Democratic chief legal officer swept aside Republican questions on whether state law required lawmakers to sign off before the barely used Thomson Correctional Center in northwestern Illinois could be sold. Madigan wrote that state law provides the governor with the necessary authority to close and sell the prison...

The Obama administration is planning to repatriate six Yemenis held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a transfer that could be a prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen, according to sources with independent knowledge of the matter. The release is a significant first step toward dealing with the largest group of detainees at the prison -- there are currently 97 Yemenis there -- and toward meeting President Obama's goal of closing the facility. But Yemen's security problems and lack of resources have spawned fears about its ability to monitor and rehabilitate returnees. Critics...

Gitmo Does Not Cause Terrorism"Terrorism is caused, and terrorist recruitment is driven, by Islamist ideology and by American weakness in the face of terror attacks. In that sense, Senator Durbin causes more terrorism than Gitmo ever will. Terrorist organizations are encouraged when they come to believe they can win — when they come to believe they can outlast America because we lack resolve." -- Andy McCarthy 12/18/2009 Americans Oppose Closing Gitmo, Moving Prisoners to U.S."Americans remain opposed to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and moving some of the terrorist suspects being held there to U.S. prisons: 30% favor...

CHICAGOMINUTEMAN PROJECT It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest. - Barbara Jordan   PROTEST NO TERRORISTS IN ILLINOIS WHEN: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - 1:00PM.WHERE: Sterling High School - 1608 4th Avenue - Sterling, Illinois WHY: [Alleged] President Obama has decided to move the Alien Terrorists in Gauntanamo Bay to our own backyard. I called Governor Patrick Quinn's office in Springfield to inquire as to the number of public hearings scheduled for this issue. The response was, "none." Caution: The elite propaganda outlets will try to convince us that this is nothing more than...

So we’re going to shut down the detention center at the U.S. naval base on Guantanamo Bay and move the 200-plus terrorists detained there to a seldom-used civilian correctional center in Thomson, Ill. And we’re doing it, the Obama administration and Sen. Dick Durbin assure us, not because they want to use federal money to indemnify their home state for a white-elephant prison Illinois taxpayers should never have built, but because Guantanamo Bay simply must be closed. Gitmo, they say, causes terrorism. It’s worth remembering that the “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman, perhaps the world’s most influential jihadist, was never...

Thirty-two times since 2001 and four times this year alone, senior Al Qaida leadership in recruiting videos have used the prison at Guantanamo Bay as a clarion call to bring extremists from around the world to join their effort. Is Gibbs aware of what else al Qaeda criticizes? Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: We have declared a bitter war against democracy and all those who seek to enact it. Should we get rid of this "recruiting tool" too? What about the World Trade Center, which al Qaeda so hated? Are Gibbs and Obama relieved that this longstanding irritant to the enemy is...

Americans remain opposed to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and moving some of the terrorist suspects being held there to U.S. prisons: 30% favor such actions, while 64% do not. These attitudes could present a significant roadblock for President Obama at a time when he seeks congressional approval to move terrorist suspects from Guantanamo to a converted state prison in northwestern Illinois. President Obama signed an executive order after his inauguration that called for the closing of Guantanamo, and he recently reiterated his commitment to doing this in his West Point speech on Afghanistan. The plans announced this...

Appreciate Rep.Mark Kirk's(Illinois)comments re:Pres Obama not CLOSING Gitmo, merely moving it outside of Chicago!Very,very odd strategy,DC.

Sen Dick Durban (D-IL), a defender of the plan to bring terrorists into the heart of America, proved that he is more interested in pork than in the safety of his constituents: “We believe this is in service to our country,” said Durbin who noted that Obama was directing the prisoners to his home state. “This is a great opportunity. Our state unemployment numbers are 11%…People are desperate for good jobs.” In the smackdown heard ’round the world, Liz Cheney responded: “Americans did not elect President Obama to usher terrorists onto the homeland and call it a jobs program.” Indeed...

Snarky PhotoChop scenes: George Soros threatens Obama; Illinoismo is announced; Obama curses Glenn Beck

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday praised President Barack Obama for heeding his advice to bypass the naval brig in Charleston, S.C., and transfer terror suspects instead to an Illinois prison from the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he spoke with Obama recently and reiterated his strong opposition to moving the Guantanamo detainees to the medium-security brig at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston. "I spoke to the president about Charleston a couple weeks ago," Graham told McClatchy. "He listened intently as I said I thought Charleston is not an appropriate...

Note: The following text is a quote: Some Guantanamo Detainees to Move to Illinois Prison By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2009 – President Barack Obama’s administration plans to transfer a limited number of detainees held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in rural western Illinois, senior administration officials said here today. The federal government plans to acquire Thomson Correctional Center, a 10-year-old maximum security prison in Thomson, Ill., a farming community about 150 miles west of Chicago, officials said in a background briefing. The administration would need to work...

Critics warned Tuesday that a White House plan to move as many as 100 terrorism suspects from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to a prison in Illinois could create a new security risk in the American heartland, but the Obama administration dismissed the concerns as "scare tactics and hyperbole." The announcement that the federal government would purchase the underused prison complex in Thomson, Ill., opened a new chapter in the debate over the future of scores of detainees who have been confined in legal limbo. Administration officials said the purchase of the prison, which was built in 2001 for $145...

If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is clever he will turn his trial into an Obama birth certificate circus. The New York Post has an excellent piece by attorney Michael Schwartz, pointing out the difficulty of predicting a jury's verdict in the pending Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial in New York City. His article is entitled "Why the gov't could lose this case." But there is a complex, two-part possibility that Attorney Schwartz did not consider. KSM has said he wants to put the US government on trial and will probably bring up the Bush administration and mention waterboarding as torture in the...

The announcement that federal detainees in Guantanamo Bay will be moved to a facility in Thomson, Ill. rather than another facility such as the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility has generated a lot of discussion

A painted marker in a recreation yard points the direction to Mecca at Camp Delta where detainees are held at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, January 18, 2006. REUTERS/Joe Skipper This is nothing more than a bait-and-switch in order to keep a campaign promise...Guantanamo isn't shutting down; just transferring locations: Dozens of terrorism suspects being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be moved to a little-used Illinois state prison that will be acquired and upgraded by the federal government, an Obama administration official said. The critical step toward fulfilling President Obama's...

Now for those in northern Illinois, welcome to the area becoming stigmatized for a very, very long time.

The Obama administration has decided prisoners at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison will be transferred to a jail in rural Illinois. The US Government will buy the Thomson Correctional Centre from the Illinois government and the Department of Defence will lease part of the prison to house detainees from the prison in Cuba.

With the expected announcement of the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois, a Republican-driven hysteria is virtually guaranteed. That’s as empty as it is uninteresting. What’s interesting is whether the Republicans’ 2008 presidential nominee and national security elder statesman, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), joins in the action. McCain, recall, has long advocated shuttering the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Back on the 2008 campaign trail, he said bluntly, “I believe we should close Guantanamo,” as the United States’ “great power does not mean that we can do whatever we want, whenever we want.” Spoken like a...

The Obama administration’s plan to move terrorist detainees from the security of Guantanamo Bay to a little-used state prison in Illinois is being hailed by supportive Democrats as a boon for local economic development. Even if the development were truly a boon — and it’s more a boondoggle — that would not come close to justifying it. National security is not a shovel-ready jobs program. It is the first duty of government, and it would be senselessly imperiled by transferring trained jihadists into the United States. Like much unpopular or embarrassing news, the transfer plan leaked late on a Friday....

Top Five Reasons Gitmo Should Not Move to Illinois: 5) The U.S. has already spent a fortune retrofitting the facility at Guantanamo to make it Muslim Friendly!4)We don't yet know the price paid for that wasting prison in Illinois, but I'm sure we got a racehorse deal (wink, wink)! 3)Now, we get to spend another fortune to retrofit the Illinois facility to be Muslim Friendly. 2) We had the Navy running Gitmo and working the facility. Now, we get to hire hundreds (thousands?) of new prison personnel in Illinois - all union, federal employees with their high pay, benefits, retirement,...

The Obama administration will officially announce on Tuesday that some Guantanamo prison terrorists will be shipped to the Thomson, Illinois correctional center, according to ABC News. Despite polls showing 51% of Illinois residents oppose the move, the state's Democrats are elated.

Justice: A leaked memo exposes the hypocrisy of those who opposed indefinite detention of terrorists without trial at Guantanamo. For the right price, they're willing to hold detainees without trial indefinitely in America's heartland. The plan to ship as many as 100 unidentified terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a little used prison in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town of 450 people near the Mississippi River about 150 miles west of Chicago, is well under way, according to a Justice Department memo unearthed by Andrew Breitbart and biggovernment.com. The memo allegedly from Eric Holder's Department of Justice to Defense Secretary...

The United States has asked NATO member Bulgaria to house detainees from its prison camp at Guantanamo in Cuba, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on Saturday.

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it rejected an appeal by four former Guantanamo Bay prisoners arguing that they should be able to proceed with their lawsuit against top Pentagon officials for torture and religious abuse. The justices refused to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit by the four British citizens over their treatment at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on the grounds the officials enjoyed immunity. The four men -- Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal al-Harith -- were captured in late 2001 in Afghanistan and were...

A leaked memorandum posted to a Web site Friday says the Obama administration has chosen to move detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Thomson Correctional Center, but the administration says it is only a draft and is “predecisional.” The one-page memo, dated Thursday, directs acquisition of the Thomson facility and relocation of the detainees there. It was posted on www.biggovernment.com. An administration official cautioned Friday afternoon that it is not unusual for drafts to be prepared for multiple possibilities. “This is a draft, predecisional document that lawyers at various agencies were drafting in preparation for a potential future announcement...

Another scoop for Breitbart, but with a caveat. The One’s team insists that the memo’s only a draft, even if it does just so happen to jibe with news reports from last month. “This is a draft, predecisional document that lawyers at various agencies were drafting in preparation for a potential future announcement about where to house GTMO detainees,” the administration official said. “Drafts of official documents are often prepared for any and all possibilities, regardless of whether a decision has been made about the policy or if the document will be used.”… The leaked memo was met with approval...

In a shocking news flash, BigGovernment.com has published a Department of Justice Memo that authorizes the Obama Administration to send terrorists into Illinois! Via Obama Executive Order 13492, terrorists WILL BE SENT to Illinois.

The Land of Lincoln may still be licking its wounds–and certain real estate transactions–over Chicago’s losing the Olympics to Rio, but the Obama Administration has delivered up a small consolation prize: the state’s very own federal prison for terrorists. Big Government has received what is claimed to be a leaked DOJ memo that was allegedly sent yesterday from Eric Holder’s Department of Justice to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Memo below:

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, December 9, 2009 United States Transfers One Guantanamo Bay Detainee to Kuwait Fouad Mahmoud al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti national, has been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the government of Kuwait. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of this case. As a result of that review, the detainee was approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay. In accordance with Congressionally-mandated reporting requirements, the Administration informed Congress of its intent to transfer...

SNIPPET: "Al-Qaida's network in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen) has released the audio-recorded wills of two mujahideen operatives who were recently "martyred" in clashes with local security forces -- including former Guantanamo Bay detainee #114 Yusuf Muhammad Mubarak al-Jebairy al-Shehri. The younger brother of a senior Al-Qaida member, al-Shehri first left his home in Saudi Arabia in mid-2001 in order to wage jihad alongside the Taliban because he "thought that participating in jihad with the Taliban was the right thing to do... the Taliban were good Muslims.” In the midst of fleeing the crumbling Taliban frontline in late 2001, Yusuf al-Shehri...

WHEN LAWYERS LEAVE ONE AFTER THE OTHER, THERE HAS TO BE A LEGAL PROBLEM The Department of Justice announced yesterday that Deputy U.S. Attorney General, David Ogden, the second highest ranking official under Eric Holder, would resign on February 10th and return to private practice. Nia-Malika Henderson, writing for Politico.com, a markedly liberal leaning site, could not deny the facts: The second-in-command at the Justice Department is leaving his post, officials announced Thursday — making him the third top Obama legal official to announce his departure in recent weeks. Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden will return to private practice...

CHICAGO - Despite opposition from congressional Republicans, the Obama administration is signaling that a state prison in rural Thomson, Ill., will probably become the new home for scores of terrorism suspects now housed at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Officials from the White House, Defense Department and U.S. Bureau of Prisons spent two hours last week briefing more than a dozen members of the Illinois delegation in the office of Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. To reassure skeptical Republicans, they emphasized security. Although the officials left open the possibility that another site could be chosen, participants...

A group of 9/11 families and their supporters are rallying in front of Manhattan's federal courthouse to protest the plan to put terrorism suspects on trial in New York. The protesters plan to gather in front of the lower Manhattan courthouse at noon. They say a New York trial could again make the city a terrorism target, and that the five should instead face a military tribunal. Other victims of the 9/11 attacks disagree. Lorie Van Auken lost her husband at the World Trade Center. She says its fitting that the accused answer charges a short walk from ground zero....

Among other things, Morris Davis, retired United States Air Force Colonel, is an expert on military commissions. He served as Chief Prosecutor for the Guantanamo military commissions. He resigned from the position and retired from active duty last year and took a job with the Congressional Research Office (CRO) running the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division. Last month Davis wrote an op-ed for the WSJ where he criticized the Administration's decision to try some detainees via military commissions and others in civilian courts . Davis wrote: "The administration must choose. Either federal courts or military commissions, but not both,...

Husband of WTC survivor Lauren, Greg Manning appeared on Fox News this morning about our rally tomorrow, Saturday December 5, at noon in Foley Square, in lower Manhattan. The rally will be in front of the same federal courthouse -- a mere six blocks from al Qaeda's greatest victory -- where AG Eric Holder thinks war criminals Khalid Sheihk Mohammed should be given a stage, Constitutional rights, the right to act as his own attorney, and to see the classified evidence against him during time of war. Greg Manning calls the decision "outrageous." (Click here to watch the Fox News...

<p>WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A former Guantanamo Bay detainee released to Saudi Arabia in 2006 has become a top ideologue for al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula, an intelligence review said.</p> <p>Pakistani officials captured Ibrahim Suleiman al-Rubaish in 2001 and turned him over to U.S. officials who then sent him to the naval detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.</p>

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "A former Guantanamo detainee has emerged as a leading ideologue and theologian for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – one of the strongest al Qaeda affiliates in the world. Ibrahim Suleiman al Rubaish was captured by Pakistani authorities in late 2001 and then handed over to American officials who transferred him to Guantanamo. Rubaish was held there until Dec. 13, 2006, when he was transferred to Saudi Arabia and placed in the Saudi rehabilitation program for jihadists. At some point, Rubaish escaped from Saudi Arabia by fleeing south to Yemen. In February 2009, the Saudi...

Lawyers for a terrorism suspect once held at Guantánamo Bay who is now facing prosecution in Manhattan asked a judge on Tuesday to dismiss his case on the ground that his nearly five years in detention denied him his constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-ag-1289.html Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, December 1, 2009 United States Transfers a Guantanamo Bay Detainee to France WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice today announced that a detainee has been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the government of France. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of this case. As a result of that review, the detainee was approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay. In accordance...

SNIPPET: "Adel Ben Mabrouk, 39, and Mohamed Ben Riadh Nasri, 43, are suspected of being members of a terror group with ties to al-Qaida. They were immediately taken into custody upon arrival in Milan and will be interrogated, a prosecutor told The Associated Press.

Hey, remember a few weeks ago, when we were all outraged at the Obama administration’s decision to try Gitmo detainees in New York courts, rather than holding military trials for the self-confessed 9/11 mastermind and his minions? Whatever happened to that? Why has it died out of the news? [must-see video by Bill Whittle]

The glorious fruit of giving the 9/11 plotters civilian trials is already beginning to appear. Watch for these guys to walk—after wasting a few taxpayer millions, that is. “Mental State Cited in 9/11 Case,” by Jess Bravin in the Wall Street Journal, November 27 (thanks to Elisa): WASHINGTON—When five defendants are brought before a New York federal judge to face charges for the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the first question may be whether some of them are competent to stand trial at all. Military lawyers for Ramzi Binalshibh, an accused organizer of the 9/11 plot, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi,...

Earlier this month President Obama fired Greg Craig, his main counsel on matters concerning the Guantanamo Bay Facility. And this week Obama sheds another one of his GITMO team with the resignation of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Detainee Policy Phillip Carter. It appears that Obama's GITMO team is being systematically eliminated. One has to ask, why? The only real answer has to be that Obama is setting up some plausible deniability by firing or forcing the resignation of officials involved with GITMO policy. Once enough of these people are gone, Obama can look wide-eyed to the public and...

It's not true that the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist. Even dead terrorists aren't good. But at least they're dead. And that helps. But political correctness has possessed Washington. It's so bad that even Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who's done a great job in many other respects, parrots the cliché that "we can't kill our way out of this." Well, folks, there's no other way out of this all-or-nothing struggle with fanatics. Three thousand years of history teach that there's no alternative -- none -- to killing fanatics in large numbers when your enemies are ablaze with religious...

Of all the changes Barack Obama is trying to bring about, there is one that would have stunned and dismayed his most ardent supporters, had they foreseen it during the presidential campaign. After all his talk of American values and loyalty to the Constitution, Obama is positioning himself to become the man who brought indefinite detention to the United States. Under his leadership, we might soon have in our midst a group of people — accused terrorists currently residing at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — who are permanently imprisoned, yet have never been charged with or convicted...

THOMSON, Ill., Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Thousands of jobs would be created in Illinois if the U.S. government purchases a nearly empty prison there to house terror detainees, a study indicates. The study, performed by the Obama White House Council of Economic Advisers and obtained by The Chicago Sun-Times, asserted that 2,290 to 2,960 jobs would be created in and around Thomson, Ill., in the first year after its conversion to house some of the prisoners now held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility, the newspaper reported Sunday. Local residents in the Illinois-Iowa border town would be "good candidates"...

ALGIERS, Algeria -- An Algerian court on Sunday acquitted two former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were returned home to face charges of links to terrorism, their defense lawyer said. Abdelli Faghoul and Terari Mohamed had admitted in court to links with the illegal drug underworld, but denied any connection to foreign terrorist groups, defense lawyer Farid Abbache-Holder told The Associated Press. The two men were released from Guantanamo and handed over to Algerian authorities on Aug. 15, 2008 - nearly seven years after they were taken into custody and held without trial, the lawyer said. The defendants traveled...