* Congressman Don Manzullo has clarified and apologized for his remarks…
In an interview with television station WREX in Rockford, Ill., Republican Rep. Donald Manzullo said of terrorism suspects: “These are really, really mean people whose job it is to kill people, driven by some savage religion.” An aide said Tuesday that Manzullo, who opposes the possibility of housing detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the Thomson Correctional Center in northwestern Illinois, received about 20 complaints about the remark. The Obama administration has identified Thomson as a possible site for the detainees.
In a statement, Manzullo said he was not referring generally to Islam, but to terrorists who practice a violent, anti-modern version of Islam. He said Islam is a “religion of peace” and that the vast majority of its adherents are “men and women of goodwill.”
He added: “Nevertheless, I apologize for any misunderstanding of my comments and I will endeavor in the future to clarify my remarks to make it absolutely clear that America is not opposed to Islam, but that we are fighting terrorists who believe in a savage, perverted, and violent form of Islam.”
But Congressman John Shimkus didn’t get the memo…
“I am more concerned about bringing these terrorists onto American soil than about prison safety,” Shimkus said in a news release. “Will radical Islamic elements migrate to the area surrounding the terrorist prison?”
I used to live not far from Thomson. I don’t think “radical Islamic elements” would find living there all that comfortable.
* It’s hard to argue with today’s Daily Herald editorial, which kicks off with a quote by House GOP Leader Tom Cross: “”There ought to be a debate. There ought to be a discussion,” about bringing the Gitmo detainees to Illinois…
But in the simmering atmosphere of a young election campaign, discussion appears to be the last thing Cross or any other political leader really wants. Partisan battle lines were drawn virtually the moment it was proposed to shift more than 100 Guantanamo Bay detainees to the underused prison in tiny Thomson, and the only talk either side appeared to want to engage in was to show how far it could puff out its chest.
In his continuing rush to embrace the rhetoric of the right, U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk, the one-time moderate Republican 10th District congressman from Highland Park, said the proposal would make northern Illinois “the center of jihadi attention in the world” and painted a picture of a steady stream of terrorist family and friends pouring into Thomson for regular visits.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, on the other hand, dismissed all criticism as an attempt “to scare people” and portrayed the placement in Illinois of some of the world’s most dangerous terrorist suspects as a virtually worry-free jobs bonanza with the potential impact of $1 billion on the state economy.
Is it any wonder that Illinois citizens have so little faith in their elected officials?
They’re right on all counts. And, as I’ve pointed out several times before, Kirk’s screaming is rapidly turning off his most reliable base: The Chicago-area media. This is the Daily Herald we’re talking about, not the Chicago Reader. It ain’t exactly liberal Democratic turf.
* Another GOP-leaning paper, the Peoria Journal Star, weighs in…
This could have been a debate on the advantages and downsides of the proposal, one that used reasoned arguments, backed up with facts. Alas, blame, mudslinging and fear-mongering are usually easier than leaving politics at the water’s edge, where they belong in foreign affairs and national security.
* SJ-R…
Terrorists in our neighborhoods? The biggest homeland security question here since 9/11? Illinois singled out for terrorism?
In politics, we expect a certain amount of hyperbole. What we have heard in opposition to using the Thomson Correctional Center to house Guantanamo terror suspects, however, amounts to unadulterated hysteria. […]
We find the fear-mongering about housing Guantanamo terror suspects to be a fairly stunning contrast from the message this country has worked so hard to send after 9/11. Where we once preached that the “terrorists would win” if we deviated from routine out of fear, are we now to be afraid to house them in a prison rated a “supermax” — a security grade from which no inmate has ever escaped?
And the paper makes the same point I’ve been trying to drive home all week…
We do have concerns that the state, at this early point in the talks, does not realize that this is a seller’s market and is giving the federal government a bargain. The figure of $120 million — what it cost to build Thomson — has been bandied about as a selling price. Given the state’s investment and the federal government’s need, that strikes us as an outrageously low asking price.
* Mark Kirk has singled out the Exelon nuclear plant about 30 miles from the Thomson prison as a possible terrorist target, but the company says it’s not worried…
For its part, Exelon doesn’t plan any security changes at the plant, which is guarded 24 hours a day.
“We really don’t believe there would need to be any changes to the security program at all,” Cordova plant spokesman Bill Stoermer said Tuesday.
* Phil Kadner takes a major whack at the fear-mongering…
Here are Americans - who claim to be the roughest, toughest people on the face of the planet - crying that their government can’t be trusted to safely house alleged terrorists in a maximum-security prison in the heartland of the United States.
If that’s true, if that’s really the way Illinois residents think, we ought to surrender right now and beg President Barack Obama for mercy.
I understand the “not in my back yard” mentality.
As a newspaperman, I’ve heard it many times - when group homes were created to house disabled people, when a domestic violence center for women tried to expand and when social workers were seeking a site for a homeless shelter in the Southland.
But this is really different. This is about terrorism, and terrorism is all about fear. If you’re afraid, they win, we lose.
* Related…
* FACT CHECK: Guantanamo detainees and US prisons
* Republicans seek to block funds for inmate transfer: Illinois House Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock of Peoria, introduced legislation Tuesday that would prohibit federal funding from being used in the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to an Illinois prison in Thomson.
* Shimkus: No Gitmo prisoners in Illinois
* No town vs. town battle for Gitmo detainees – yet
* Thomson area Democrats split on decision to sell prison
* Schillerstrom not ‘No’ on Gitmo