Gitmo North update

A year ago a major political issue in Illinois was the possible transfer of 100 or 200 hardened jihadists from the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center to a mostly empty state penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois.

What Sen. Dick Durbin called "a dream come true" isn't going to happen. But the federal government still wants to buy the northwestern Illinois prison--if only to use it as a regular penitentiary.

The Chicago Tribune reports on the hard-luck, high unemployment town. Its mayor wants the feds to buy Thomson facility--but my guess is that because of its link to being Gitmo North, the incoming Republican House majority will kill any deal.

On President Obama's first full day in office, he signed an executive order directing the federal government to close the Gitmo jail within a year. That was almost two years ago.

Technorati tags: Illinois Senate Gitmo guantanamo War on Terror Durbin illinois politics prisons america usa Obama politics Barack Obama Gitmo guantanamo