WH moves ahead on IL prison purchase: The Swamp

Posted June 21, 2010 4:15 PM

The Swampby Christi Parsons

The Obama administration will purchase the Thomson prison in rural western Illinois even if Congress doesn’t approve the president’s plan to lock up terror suspects there, a key official at the Justice Department said Monday.

Lawmakers are threatening to scotch Obama’s proposal to move terror detainees to the unused state prison, a critical part of his plan to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center.Even if lawmakers make good on that threat, a letter from Justice Department suggests, the federal government will simply use the facility to hold federal inmates.

Writing to members of the Illinois delegation in Congress, Asst. Atty. Gen. Ronald Weich reaffirmed the administration’s “commitment to acquiring the facility this year,” and provided details about steps planned for the next few months.

via WH moves ahead on IL prison purchase: The Swamp.