Subject: [big campaign] Obama's Gitmo Decision Keeps America Safe While Conservatives Politicize National Security
From: Adam Blickstein <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:48:18 -0500
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Obama's Gitmo Decision Keeps America Safe While Conservatives Politicize National Security

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Obama administration will announce an important step towards closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.  Dozens of terrorism suspects currently held at the prison on the U.S. naval base are set to be transferred to a prison in Thomson, Illinois.  When retrofitted, the Thomson Correctional Center will have the same, if not greater, enhanced security capabilities as the several other prisons on American soil that currently hold terrorists.  Local leaders, residents, former Guantanamo Bay prison guards and prosecutors as well as the nation's largest prison guard union have endorsed the plan and the economic and national security enhancements it will provide. There is clear support for and confidence in the prison system's ability to hold the prisoners coupled with the anticipation of jobs and federal money that will come with the transfer.

While the administration seeks practical solutions to serious issues, many conservatives have simply gone on the attack, politicizing this national security decision.  Their incoherent arguments have amounted to little more than obstruction, without any meaningful contributions to the debate or solutions of their own.  The political fight conservatives are waging comes to the detriment of our national security, and feeds into the extremist agenda our enemies thrive upon. In the end, these conservative arguments have more to do with perpetuating their political agenda rather than protecting Americans. Guantanamo Bay and the abuses that it has come to represent has become a rallying cry for al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.  If this facility stays open it is a victory for al Qaeda.  The Obama administration and America must continue on the path to closing the infamous facility.

Detainees to be transferred to Thomson, Illinois - Illinois residents, local citizens and leaders welcome arrival.   The prison, which will be retrofitted for superior security has received wide support from local leaders who have confidence in the American prison system that currently houses terrorists and other dangerous criminals.  CNN reports that, "The governor and other officials have said such a deal could provide up to 2,000 jobs and up to $1 billion in federal money to the area. [Sen. Dick] Durbin, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, has spoken positively of the plan."   A recent letter signed by a former congressman and two former U.S. Attorneys from the district that houses the Thomson prison reads, ""We write to support the use of federal and state prisons, including the one at Thomson, IL, to house Guantanamo detainees pre-trial and post-conviction... we strongly reject charges that our country's prisons cannot securely hold terrorism suspects or other dangerous individuals. In fact, these facilities have proven their ability to do just that; they currently hold approximately 195 individuals convicted of terrorism offenses in our federal courts." Additionally, residents of Thomson do not seem to fear the idea of terrorists housed in their prison, in fact, they welcome the jobs and federal money that come with them.  "Merrie Jo [Paullie], said she was firmly behind turning over the prison... 'We need the jobs,' Ms. Pauley, 64, who was village president here for 27 years, said ... The notion that a terrorism suspect could slip away into Thomson without being noticed was unimaginable to Ms. Pauley, who added, 'If a stranger comes around here, everyone knows within 20 minutes, believe me,'" reports the New York Times.

Another local resident was able to provide a unique perspective.  Chris Sivright a member of the 339th Military Police Company of the Army Reserves, which was stationed guarding prisoners  at the Guantanamo Bay prison -fully supports the plan saying that the Thomson prison is a more secure location than the detention centers at Guantanamo Bay.  "Sivright, a Clinton County Sheriff's deputy, is not concerned about safety if the detainees are moved to the nearby prison. He sees a lot more positives than negatives in the idea. 'The State of Illinois is having some money problems. With the economy the way it is, I think it would be good for Thomson,' said Sivright, who is still a member of the 339th but expects to retire from military service in another year. 'I don't know what it's like at Gitmo now, but from when we were there, I think the prison is in much better shape,' he said. 'They're going to stay inside, for the most part,.. And I think it would be great for Thomson.'" reports the Quad-City Times.  [Washington Post, 12/15/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2009%2F12%2F15%2FAR2009121500095.html%3Fhpid%3Dtopnews&id=preview>. CNN, 12/15/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2009%2FUS%2F12%2F15%2Fgitmo.illinois%2F&id=preview>. Abner J. Mikva, Thomas P. Sullivan and Dan K. Webb, Constitution Project Letter, 11/30/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.constitutionproject.org%2Fmanage%2Ffile%2F358.pdf&id=preview>.  NY Times, 11/17/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2009%2F11%2F18%2Fus%2F18illinois.html&id=preview>. Quad-City Times, 12/15/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.qctimes.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Farticle_8483f554-e934-11de-bb1e-001cc4c002e0.html&id=preview>]

Detainees to be transferred to Thomson, Illinois- local citizens and leaders welcome arrival.   The prison, which will be retrofitted for superior security has received wide support from local leaders who have confidence in the American prison system that currently houses terrorists and other dangerous criminals.  CNN reports that, "The governor and other officials have said such a deal could provide up to 2,000 jobs and up to $1 billion in federal money to the area. [Sen. Dick] Durbin, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, has spoken positively of the plan."   A recent letter signed by a former congressman and two former U.S. Attorneys from the district that houses the Thomson prison reads, ""We write to support the use of federal and state prisons, including the one at Thomson, IL, to house Guantanamo detainees pre-trial and post-conviction... we strongly reject charges that our country's prisons cannot securely hold terrorism suspects or other dangerous individuals. In fact, these facilities have proven their ability to do just that; they currently hold approximately 195 individuals convicted of terrorism offenses in our federal courts." Additionally, residents of Thomson do not seem to fear the idea of terrorists housed in their prison, in fact, they welcome the jobs and federal money that come with them.  "Merrie Jo [Paullie], said she was firmly behind turning over the prison... 'We need the jobs,' Ms. Pauley, 64, who was village president here for 27 years, said ... The notion that a terrorism suspect could slip away into Thomson without being noticed was unimaginable to Ms. Pauley, who added, 'If a stranger comes around here, everyone knows within 20 minutes, believe me,'" reports the New York Times.

Another local resident was able to provide a unique perspective.  Chris Sivright a member of the 339th Military Police Company of the Army Reserves, which was stationed guarding prisoners  at the Guantanamo Bay prison -fully supports the plan saying that the Thomson prison is a more secure location than the detention centers at Guantanamo Bay.  "Sivright, a Clinton County Sheriff's deputy, is not concerned about safety if the detainees are moved to the nearby prison. He sees a lot more positives than negatives in the idea. 'The State of Illinois is having some money problems. With the economy the way it is, I think it would be good for Thomson,' said Sivright, who is still a member of the 339th but expects to retire from military service in another year. 'I don't know what it's like at Gitmo now, but from when we were there, I think the prison is in much better shape,' he said. 'They're going to stay inside, for the most part,.. And I think it would be great for Thomson.'" reports the Quad-City Times.  [Washington Post, 12/15/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2009%2F12%2F15%2FAR2009121500095.html%3Fhpid%3Dtopnews&id=preview>. CNN, 12/15/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2009%2FUS%2F12%2F15%2Fgitmo.illinois%2F&id=preview>. Abner J. Mikva, Thomas P. Sullivan and Dan K. Webb, Constitution Project Letter, 11/30/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.constitutionproject.org%2Fmanage%2Ffile%2F358.pdf&id=preview>.  NY Times, 11/17/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2009%2F11%2F18%2Fus%2F18illinois.html&id=preview>. Quad-City Times, 12/15/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.qctimes.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Farticle_8483f554-e934-11de-bb1e-001cc4c002e0.html&id=preview>]

Conservatives erupt over moves to hold terrorists in U.S., politicizing national security and besmirching our criminal justice system.  Conservatives have been all over the map since the news first broke that the Obama administration was considering transferring detainees to Thomson, Illinois in order to bring about the closing of the facility at Guantanamo Bay.  As reported in the New York Times, Rep. Mark Kirk, a conservative contender for the U.S. Senate initially joined with Rep. Don Manzullo to declare: "[a]s home to America's tallest building, we should not invite Al Qaeda to make Illinois its No. 1 target."  Since then, Kirk has been all over the place.  According to the Chicago Tribune, he scaled back his opposition, wanting more information before making a decision.  But his campaign's petition to Obama reads, "If your Administration brings Al Qaeda terrorists to Illinois, our state and the Chicago Metropolitan Area will become ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization," noticed Ben Smith at Politico. Other Illinois conservatives have continued to beat the drum.  "Manzullo said he was concerned that Thomson would house the largest collection of terrorists within the U.S.," reported the Chicago Breaking News.   In a forum in Springfield Illinois, State Sen. Kirk Dillard stated, "I think Al-Qaeda needs to stay in Cuba," while former Attorney General Jim Ryan said, "No one can tell me there isn't some risk to bringing such a high-profile terrorist to Illinois that we can't attract some sleeper cells."

In fact, conservative outcry over the decision is utterly baseless.  The U.S. has a stellar record of safely keeping hardened terrorists behind bars, a reality which exposes GOP positioning on this issue as craven politicization.

Union for Federal Prison Officers: We welcome transfer of Guantanamo detainees to Thomson. When it was first hinted that the government would detain terrorist suspects in Thomson, the American Federation of Government Employees' (AFGE) Council of Prison Locals (CPL) released a statement saying: "We fully support housing Guantanamo Bay detainees at the Thomson Correctional Center... Furthermore, we do not see a safety risk to the surrounding community. Our correctional officers are the best-trained, most-qualified candidates in the world for this job. We have no doubt BOP correctional officers are up to the task." [AFGE Statement, via Human Rights First, 11/18/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.humanrightsfirst.info%2Fpdf%2FUSLS-111809-BOP-Statement.pdf&id=preview>]

2007 60 Minutes Report: Terrorists "spend up to 23 hours a day in their cells." In 2007, 60 Minutes reported on the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado, which holds dozens of terrorists who were convicted in civilian court, including: Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker" in the September 11, 2001 attacks; Ramzi Yusef and Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted for masterminding the first World Trade Center attack; and Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber. According to the former warden there, "Most prisoners spend up to 23 hours a day in their cells, every minute, every meal." [60 Minutes,8/14/07<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fstories%2F2007%2F10%2F11%2F60minutes%2Fmain3357727.shtml&id=preview>]

Representative Jan Schakowsky: GOP "absolutely politicizing the situation."  The Washington Post reported: "Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, who along with the state's senior Democratic leadership supports the prison deal, dismisses GOP opposition as 'politics at its worst.' 'We can defeat Republican efforts to stop this,' said Schakowsky, who contends the GOP is 'absolutely politicizing the situation. They're looking for any angle that would make the president somehow look soft on terrorists. Fear, in the past, has been their friend.'" [Washington Post, 12/07/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2009%2F12%2F05%2FAR2009120502795.html&id=preview>]

Top Illinois legal professionals: End "fear-mongering" over steps to close Guantanamo.  Abner J. Mikva, former Illinois member of Congress and former federal judge, Thomas P. Sullivan, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Dan K. Webb, also a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois joined a Constitution Project letter, urging "the elected officials of Illinois to reject the irresponsible fear-mongering and partisan politics that have bogged down the inevitable, and necessary, closing of Guantanamo." [The Constitution Project, 11/30/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.constitutionproject.org%2Fmanage%2Ffile%2F358.pdf&id=preview>]

[NY Times, 11/16/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2009%2F11%2F16%2Fus%2F16gitmo.html%3F_r%3D1%26hp&id=preview>. Chicago Tribune, 11/24/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagotribune.com%2Fnews%2Fchi-kirk-terrorist-prison24nov24%2C0%2C2008953.story&id=preview>. Politico, 12/15/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fblogs%2Fbensmith%2F1209%2FThe_new_terror_politics.html%3Fshowall&id=preview>. Chicago Breaking News, 12/02/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagobreakingnews.com%2F2009%2F12%2Fillinois-lawmakers-remain-divided-after-thomson-briefing.html&id=preview>. The State Journal-Register, 12/14/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sj-r.com%2Fstate%2Fx1479446421%2FFive-GOP-gubernatorial-candidates-against-Thomson-housing-Gitmo-prisoners&id=preview>]

Closing Guantanamo is vital for U.S. national security. A senior administration official explained to ABC News the national security implications of closing Guantanamo: "Closing the detention center at Guantanamo is essential to protecting our national security and helping our troops by removing a deadly recruiting tool from the hands of al Qaeda...Tomorrow's announcement is an important step forward as we work to achieve our national security objectives."

Former Secretaries of State, military leaders, and national security experts all agree that closing Guantanamo is essential for regaining moral credibility, and protecting Americans:

Former Secretaries of State Kissinger, Albright, Powell, Baker, and Christopher all agreed that closing Guantanamo Bay is vital for repairing the damage it has caused to America's image. As James Baker, Secretary of State for George H.W. Bush, said forcefully: "Close Guantanamo. We were on a panel together several months ago, and we all agreed, one of the best things that could happen would be to close Guantanamo, which is a very serious blot upon our reputation." [CNN, 9/20/08<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Ftranscripts.cnn.com%2FTRANSCRIPTS%2F0809%2F20%2Fse.01.html&id=preview>]

General David Petraeus has also said, "With respect to Guantanamo, I think that the closure in a responsible manner, obviously one that is certainly being worked out now by the Department of Justice -- I talked to the attorney general the other day [and] they have a very intensive effort ongoing to determine, indeed, what to do with the detainees who are left, how to deal with them in a legal way, and if continued incarceration is necessary -- again, how to take that forward. But doing that in a responsible manner, I think, sends an important message to the world, as does the commitment of the United States to observe the Geneva Convention when it comes to the treatment of detainees." [General David Petraeus, via Radio Free Europe, 5/24/09<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rferl.org%2Fcontent%2Ftranscript_RFERL_Interviews_US_Central_Command_Chief_General_David_Petraeus%2F1738626.html&id=preview>]

Matthew Alexander - the pseudonym of the retired Air Force major and interrogator who located the notorious terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by using conventional interrogation methods -has said that Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo were the main reasons fighters came to Iraq to attack Americans:  "I listened time and time again to foreign fighters, and Sunni Iraqis, state that the number one reason they had decided to pick up arms and join Al Qaeda was the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the authorized torture and abuse at Guantanamo Bay...  Consequently it is clear that at least hundreds but more likely thousands of American lives (not to count Iraqi civilian deaths) are linked directly to the policy decision to introduce the torture and abuse of prisoners as accepted tactics." [Matthew Alexander, via Harper's Magazine,12/18/08]

Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora testified before Congress that the stain on America's image caused by Guantanamo Bay led directly to American deaths: "Serving U.S. flag-rank officers... maintain that the first and second identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq - as judged by their effectiveness in recruiting insurgent fighters into combat - are, respectively the symbols of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo." [Alberto Mora, 6/17/08<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nhb5tedab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0427&p=http%3A%2F%2Farmed-services.senate.gov%2Fstatemnt%2F2008%2FJune%2FMora%252006-17-08.pdf&id=preview>]
###

Adam Blickstein
Communications Director
National Security Network
202-289-7113 (office)
617-335-0859 (mobile)
[email-masked]

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