Plan By Federal Government to Purchase Underutilized Maximum-Security State Prison in President’s Home State Is Attacked By Republicans as ‘a Threat to U.S. Security’ and By Rights Advocates as ‘Continuation of Unconstitutional Bush Policy’ — But Welcomed By State Officials as a ‘Much-Needed Boost’ to Job-Starved Local Economy

(Photo: U.S. Department of Defense)

The controversy over what to do with the estimated 240 remaining terror suspects now being held at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp (above) — which President Obama pledged to close by the end of the year — remains a red-hot political controversy that flared anew this week after the Obama administration announced that it was purchasing an underutilized maximum-security state prison in Illinois to house the detainees. the announcement triggered sharp criticism form both sides of the ongoing debate over Guantánamo Bay, with conservatives blasting the plan as posing a threat to the safety of Americans and human-rights advocates denouncing it as a continuation of former President George W. Bush’s policy of indefinite detention that violates the U.S. Constitution and international law.

Posted 5:00 a.m. EST Thursday, December 17, 2009)

The controversy over what to do with the estimated 240 remaining terror suspects now being held at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp (above) — which President Obama pledged to close by the end of the year — remains a red-hot political controversy that flared anew this week after the Obama administration announced that it was purchasing an underutilized maximum-security state prison in Illinois to house the detainees.

The announcement triggered sharp criticism form both sides of the ongoing debate over Guantánamo Bay, with conservatives blasting the plan as posing a threat to the safety of Americans and human-rights advocates denouncing it as a continuation of former President George W. Bush’s policy of indefinite detention that violates the U.S. Constitution and international law.

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