Remember Thomson?  It is the location of the prison slated to become the stateside home of enemy combatant detainees currently housed at the military-run facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  You might recall that quite a few Illinoisans bristled at the thought of suspected terrorists and enemies of the State becoming our newest residents.  Even more bristled at the idea of selling the facility for roughly $170 million despite the facts that the mostly unoccupied facility has already racked up in excess of $164 million in state expenses and another $12 million in village expenses (and counting).  (For those of you doing the math, that represents a net loss.)  Prepare to bristle again as Thomson finds itself back in the news again.

The politicians at the state and federal levels are doing their best to perform an end-around on we the people.  To alleviate our concerns over the possibility of “alleged” terrorist detainees being transferred to Illinois, a Justice Department official announced last week that the Obama administration intends to purchase the facility regardless of whether Congress allows the transfer.  In the words of Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, the Department of Justice has been directed to buy the facility “to fulfill both the goals of reducing federal prison overcrowding and transferring a limited number of detainees out of Guantanamo.”  He went on to write that the department “would be seeking to purchase the facility in Thomson even if detainees were not being considered for transfer there.”  Make no mistake about it!  This statement was made for the sole purpose of easing objections and greasing the wheels.

You might be thinking, “What’s the big deal??  It gets a liability off of the state books, and it brings much-needed jobs to an extremely poor area with negligible prospects.  Win-win, baby…”  Not so fast.  If Illinois sells now, the deal as is represents worse than a $6 million loss because of inflation (which has risen almost 22% since the middle of 2001).  Considering inflation, the loss is more like $33 million.  Considering the higher costs of building materials and general business expenses, it just does not make sense to sell for such a low amount.  In this era of government bailouts, it doesn’t make sense that a state so cash-strapped would give the federal government a deal.  Let’s not even get into asking why the supremely cash-strapped federal government is buying property at discounted prices from an impressively cash-strapped state.  

You might be thinking, “But the feds are budgeting another $67 million for upgrading, modifying, and running the facility for one year.  That equals jobs.”  I appreciate the prospect of jobs, but there is nothing promising that Illinois residents and Illinois businesses are going to be the contractors upgrading and modifying the prison.  Besides that, how deep do we sink for the promise of paying jobs?

Lastly, you might be thinking, “What is the big deal about bringing enemy combatant detainees to a federal prison in the states??  It’s got to be cheaper than maintaining a prison on foreign soil.”  The truth is that such a scenario represents something much bigger than dollars and cents.  First, you have the majority will of the people being ignored by the government.  If we don’t want them here, then why is it even being discussed still?  Second, there is no legal precedent for imprisoning enemy combatants indefinitely, so either new federal legislation would have to be passed OR the detainees would have to be granted access to the court system.  “Access to our court system” equals “bad.”  Third, how many jihadist detainees does it take to create a domestic target?  Is it inconceivable that having 100 detainees so close to a rather large Muslim population might garner some unwanted attention from said population (and I’m not talking about the lawyers)?

At the end of the day, the moral of the story is that the government is willfully deceiving us at the state and federal levels.  The feds are telling us that they would purchase the Thomson facility even if transferring the Guantanamo Bay prisoners was off the table, but they have every intention of transferring them.  The governor is assuring us that the state will be getting fair market value for the prison, but the numbers don’t make sense.  There is no hint of playing hardball here.  If anything, there is the hint of a back room deal.  If anything, Quinn should be saying, “Look Barry, it’s not like you have a lot of states clamoring for these detainees.  For a cool $300 million, we’ll consider it.”  That would at least be respectable negotiating.

Of course, President Obama, Senator Durbin, and Governor Quinn are all loving the deal thus far.  The appraiser is in place, and the Thomson facility is scheduled to close at the end of April.  We are stepping closer and closer to this thing becoming a reality.  Hopefully, Illinoisans will recognize it for what it is come November and respond accordingly.