A source inside the U.S. Justice Department said reports that the detainees would be housed at the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois was just a ploy to divert attention from the real plan.
Guantanamo contains prisoners captured in Afghanistan. Under the Bush administration they were classified as ‘enemy combatants’ and have been held without trial for as long as nine years.
President Obama campaigned on a promise to close the facility. Obama secretly visited the site in person in February when he came to New Hampshire on the pretext of holding a town hall meeting in Nashua. The real purpose of the trip was to allow Obama to see the security preparations underway.
A high level of secrecy has surrounded construction of the Berlin prison. Access to the site has been secured and local residents and officials have been prevented from visiting the area. Press requests for tours have been denied and U.S. senators have even been denied access.
A recent aerial photograph of the site revealed the presence of a minaret, indicating the presence of a mosque for religious observances.
Part of the reason for Obama’s visit was to be ready for
the firestorm expected when news of the plan became public.
The news was greeted with outrage by local officials who said they have not been
appraised of the change in plans for
the facility.
Berlin Mayor Gran Paul said he would seek to stop
construction of a sewer line connecting the prison to the city’s sewer system.
“This is not what we were sold when we agreed to host the federal prison,”
Paul said. “I don’t want terrorists in my city and I certainly am not willing to
handle their waste.”
U.S. Senator Gregg Judd, who was instrumental in getting the prison sited in
Berlin, was angry. Judd said he would seek to pass a bill preventing the
detainees from being housed in the U.S. “This is just another example of the liberal Democrats
coddling those who would harm America. I think we should keep them in Cuba and
reinstate the right to apply enhanced interrogation techniques like water
boarding. We should limit inmates at Berlin to murderers, drug dealers, and
pedophiles.”
A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons said the agency would have no comment on the story.
The Bureau of Prisons
has been secretly planning to house the detainees now at Guantanamo Bay at the
federal prison being constructed in Berlin. This aerial photograph shows a
mosque built on the grounds of the prison complex
(Berlin Daily Sun - April Fool Edition).