Legal Commentary

Leaked Memo: Guantanamo Detainees May Move To Illinois

By Jeralyn

Conservative Andrew Breitbart has launched a series of new sites called Big Government. Today, the site published this leaked memo which suggests that President Obama is going to order the detainees at Guantanamo to be moved to the Thomson Correctional Facility in Illinois.

Key portions are below:

SUBJECT: Directing Certain Actions with Respect to Acquisition and Use of Thomson Correctional Center

.... 1. The Secretary of Defense shall relocate detainees currently held at the Guantanamo Detention Facility to the TCC as expeditiously as possible, to the extent permitted by laws related to Guantanamo detainees, and consistent with
the findings in, and interagency Review established by, Executive Order 13492 of January 22, 2009.

2. The Attorney General shall as expeditiously as possible acquire and activate the TCC as a United States Penitentiary, which the Attorney General has determined would alleviate the Bureau of Prisons' shortage of maximum security cell space and could be used for other appropriate purposes. The Attorney General shall also provide to the Department of Defense a sufficient
portion of the TCC to serve as a detention facility to be operated by the Department of Defense, to accommodate the relocation of detainees by the Secretary of Defense in accordance with paragraph 1 of this memorandum.

...The Secretary of Defense is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

Sen. Dick Durbin says the leaked memo is an encouraging sign. Background is here and here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on December 11, 2009 (boomark / email).