Looking at this issue with a wide perspective: We have a President committed to moving the Guantanamo detainees out of Cuba and into a US facility, a plan that has shown large scale support from the US population, along with a large amount of International support (not that their opinion truly matters in this instance). We also have the legal issue of how and when to try the suspected criminals, since we have recently moved to regard them as terrorists rather then enemy combatants. Couple these points with the fact that we are currently in one of the worst recessionary periods that most Americans have seen since the Great Depression.
Now lets look at the local situation of Thomson Illinois. According to local government officials unemployment in the town of roughly 5000 people stands at 10.2 %, slightly above the National Average. Couple this with a State budget that can't even afford to fully open the institution for fears of the operating expenses.
It is in this situation that what Gov. Quinn calls the sweetheart deal comes in. The Federal Government will purchase the facility (money to the State budget which is badly needed), will invest more money to further develop the facility (local construction jobs), and will open/ operate the facility for an indeterminate period of time (a general boon to the local economy with new industries and jobs being created to service the prison).
Where's the negative here? The phantom threat of terrorism in Thomson Illinois? A break out of terrorists? Are the terrorists so strongly connected to one another that they would try a break out, obviously not since most cells have no contact with one another?
Really, who should we be more afraid of break outs by murders and serial molesters (normal inmates to a state maximum penitentiary) or that a band of angered Al-Qaeda will come and try to overthrow the 100+ guards to free their comrades?
And to the idea of terrorists attacking Thomson town square; haven't we learned that terrorists like big, populace, highly visible targets. I mean they didn't destroy the world's largest ball of twine in Indiana or something similar on 9/11. There simply wouldn't be enough shock value to bringing fundamentalist jihad to the small quiet town of Thomson, for an aerial view of Thomson I went to Google Maps and retrieved this image:So let's thing about this again right here in Illinois we have a facility ready and waiting for the detainees, that was built to supermax specifications and is currently empty. On the other side we have a Federal Government that is willing to purchase it, improve it, and operate it, a total benefit to the local economy estimated to be nearly $1 billion over the next 4 years. With Governor Quinn estimating that $223 million will go directly to local incomes.
Quotes and figures taken from Fox News Article: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/16/thirst-jobs-drives-cities-beg-feds-guantanamo-detainees/
