15 December 2009

Illinois Prison Will Hold Some Guantánamo Detainees

The Obama administration says it will transfer Guantánamo detainees to the Thomson prison in Illinois.

By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington — The Obama administration is acquiring and upgrading the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois to house detainees currently being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as part of its effort to close the facility.

The United States is trying to close Guantánamo “in a timely, secure, and lawful manner,” senior administration officials told reporters December 15.

The Guantánamo facility has housed non-U.S. citizens believed to have committed acts of terrorism since 2002. However, President Obama ordered it to be closed and for U.S. officials to undertake a case-by-case review of the remaining inmates.

Along with generating criticism over the legal rights of the detainees, the Obama administration officials say the Guantánamo facility’s existence serves as a recruitment tool for violent extremists.

“Al-Qaida continues to this day to use the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay to support their recruitment efforts as they continue to plot against the United States, our allies and our interests,” the officials said.

The acquisition of the Thomson facility “is an important step forward in the president’s goal of protecting the American people,” as well as “ensuring that the detainees at the Guantánamo Bay facility face swift and certain justice in a way that they have not now for over eight years.”

In a May 21 speech, Obama outlined his framework for what to do with the remaining detainees as a determination is made in the individual cases.

Those who are accused of violating U.S. criminal laws will be transferred to the federal jurisdiction. For example, Attorney General Eric Holder announced November 13 that the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, as well as four other al-Qaida operatives will appear before a U.S. federal court in New York.

Some detainees will be transferred overseas. In the most recent instance, the Obama administration announced December 9 that Kuwaiti citizen Fouad Mahmoud al-Rabiah had been transferred to the control of the Kuwaiti government.

The United States has also repatriated detainees who were cleared for release, or released them to third countries for resettlement, such as the October 31 decision to send six Chinese Uighurs to Palau.

The Thomson prison in Illinois will hold detainees who are accused of violating international military law, and the military commissions that will try their cases will be held on the premises of the facility, the officials said.

Obama had warned on May 21 that it is possible some detainees will not be able to be prosecuted for a number of legal reasons but would still pose a clear danger to the United States and its allies.

“These are people who, in effect, remain at war with the United States,” Obama said, but he added that their detention could not be unbounded.

“That is why my administration has begun to reshape these standards to ensure they are in line with the rule of law,” the president said. The standards being developed must be lawful, must be fair, and must have a thorough process of periodic review, he said.

The senior administration officials said the case-by-case reviews of the detainees are still ongoing, and “there are no specific cases to date that meet that standard that the president has signed off on.”

If any detainees are found to be dangerous but not able to be prosecuted, they would be subject to judicial and congressional oversight, as well as a periodic review that incorporates updated intelligence and threat assessment information, the officials said. Thereafter, they would be held under the authority the U.S. Congress granted then-President Bush in the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force.

“The bottom line is, we’re trying to get to zero here on the detainees,” the officials said. “And if we have to detain any without trial, we’ll do so as a last resort. And as the president made clear in that [National] Archives speech, it would not be the decision of one man alone.”