In order to give a brief background of the subject, Guantanamo served as a detention center to house prisoners mostly captured through extraordinary rendition taken place by the CIA. The logic behind this act is mostly to transfer the prisoners to destinations where the international regulations regarding prison interrogation and treatment don’t apply. The most debated issue concerning the Guantanamo Bay detention center has been the harsh methods of interrogation, which are called torture by so many including physical and mental like waterboarding and eerie music.
After President Obama took the office, during his first months of presidency he, supposedly as documented, made an attempt to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility which was frequently used under Bush Administration to keep suspects involving terrorist activities. But dealing with the roughly 200 detainees at the prison has proved difficult, and he is widely expected to miss that deadline. The procedure has continued until on December 14, Washington claimed that the Obama administration is expected to announce on Tuesday, December 15, that it has selected a prison in northwestern Illinois to house terrorism suspects now being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a major step toward shutting down that military detention facility.
An administration official said President Obama had directed the federal government to proceed with acquiring the Thomson Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison in a rural village about 150 miles west of Chicago.
Gov. Patrick J. Quinn of Illinois and the state’s senior senator, Richard J. Durbin, will be briefed about the plan at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. The officials, both Democrats, have been enthusiastic supporters of bringing Guantanamo prisoners to Thomson, arguing that it would bring jobs to an impoverished part of the state.
When talk of bringing Guantanamo detainees to Thomson first surfaced in late November, both Mr. Quinn and Mr. Durbin held a series of news conferences to promote the idea of turning over the empty state prison, which was built in 2001 at a cost to Illinois taxpayers of about $120 million, to the federal penal system.
Top Illinois Republicans — including Representatives Donald Manzullo, whose district includes the prison, and Mark Steven Kirk, a candidate for the United States Senate seat once held by Mr. Obama — have denounced previous talk of such a move, saying it could make Illinois a target for terrorist attacks.
But Obama administration officials argue that the prison would be secure and that it would enhance national security to close Guantanamo because it has become a global symbol and a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.
It was not immediately clear how the government would pay for the prison and upgrades, but seemingly the procedure is willing to repeat. Levy taxes on the state’s tax payers.
Apparently this course of action is going to bring up a lot of tension among Americans, because both ends of the deal are issues that mainstream American public don’t approve of. Americans during a number of cases, Mahar Arar being one of them, showed their objection toward government policies regarding prisoner detention and interrogation. On the other hand, if the government wills to collect the financing through taxes, another wave of opposition will come up.
We had the same situation after the 2009 Presidency election in Iran. A lot of news about Kahrizak detention center for suspects, arrested accused for distorting the public regulations and provoking opposition, revealing that the prisoners are harshly mistreated and tortured. The facility after so many scandals and debates all over the country, even by traditionalist party, finally got closed directed and ordered by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic revolution. Detainees; therefore, were transferred to another detention facility.
No comments:
Post a Comment