Michigan Prison Could Be Option For Gitmo Detainees

LANSING, Mich. — Obama administration officials plan on Thursday to tour a soon-to-be-shuttered Michigan state prison considered an option to hold terrorism suspects now detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Two government officials said representatives of the Defense, Justice and Homeland Security departments would visit a state prison in Standish. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the visit.

An Obama administration official said the visit was intended to gather information about the facility and no decisions had been made about where to move the detainees. Multiple options are being considered, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

The maximum-security prison about 145 miles northwest of Detroit and the military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., are among the sites being considered to house the detainees if the prison in Cuba is closed by early 2010, as ordered by President Barack Obama.

Public pressure is mounting to do something to save the Standish prison, the region's largest employer with about 340 workers. Arenac County's unemployment rate already is 17.3 percent and the prison could soon close in a round of state budget cuts.

"If Standish Max becomes vacant, the impact would be devastating," said state Rep. Tim Moore, a Republican who represents the region in the Michigan Legislature. "Arenac County would be a ghost town."

California, Pennsylvania and possibly some other states have talked with Michigan officials about paying to house some of their prisoners in Standish. That appears to be the preferred option, but many in the area would be open to taking Guantanamo prisoners if everything else fails.

Local residents want the prison to remain open, but some are skittish about the prospects of suspected terrorists being housed in their small, relatively rural town.

"There's a difference between a homegrown criminal and a jihadist," said Dave Munson, a Standish restaurant and bar owner. "I think we're going to be a target. They like 'soft' targets so they're going to come after us if their people are there."

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has said she would rather take in prisoners from other states, such as California, than the Guantanamo detainees.

___

Associated Press writers Ken Thomas in Washington and Kathy Barks Hoffman in Lansing contributed to this report.

Comments

[Durango]

04:33 PM on 08/13/2009

Sure there is a difference between a hard core criminal and a jihadist.

The jihadist is probably better behaved. And not likely to become a member of the Aryan Nation. Even when he is an actual Aryan.

The argument against holding these people in prisons is as stupid as the Birthers or Death Panels killing Granny.

Just don't send them to New Mexico. they seem to have a prison break a week.

[bannorhill]

03:41 PM on 08/13/2009

Send them to Alcatraz.

Nanci wanted Gitmo closed. She can have them in her backyard.

[billobasher]

03:13 PM on 08/13/2009

Michigan needs the jobs. We will take them.

[alysheba 3]

02:20 PM on 08/13/2009

"There's a difference between a homegrown criminal and a jihadist," said Dave Munson, a Standish restaurant and bar owner.

Correct, those differences being between Timothy McVeigh and five ethnic Uighurs who were being held in Guantanamo Bay despite not being enemy combatants — or involved with terrorism at all.

[Chad Krossber]

02:13 PM on 08/13/2009

"Not on American Soil!" Gotta love the scare tactics. How about "we gotta fight them over there so they don't come over here." Like sheep. Bah Bah.

[jsgaetano]

01:49 PM on 08/13/2009

Beggars can't be choosers. Jobs is jobs.

BTW... I think Teh Terrrrrrerrrrrists would have a much easier time getting to Cuba than Michigan. So any perceived terrrrrrrerrrrrist threat is living in a fantasy world.

[sc300nc]

01:23 PM on 08/13/2009

From an ocean paradise to a midwestern hell. Good job.

[k6007]

10:59 AM on 08/13/2009

Good. We need the jobs.

[PostModernPatriot]

10:01 AM on 08/13/2009

"Public pressure is mounting to do something to save the Standish prison, the region's largest employer with about 340 workers."

On a somewhat related note, isn't it rather screwed up that an entire region's economy depends on a prison? Instead of producing goods or providing services that enhance people's lives, an economy has turned to the continuation of human misery to support it's people.

This is just a microcosm of our national economy.

I shudder when I think about what it might take to "save a prison" so 340 people's jobs can be maintained.

[gappedtoothgodwarrior]

10:21 AM on 08/13/2009

"On a somewhat related note, isn't it rather screwed up that an entire region's economy depends on a prison?"
Not really, communities spring up around all sorts of things and always have

"Instead of producing goods or providing services that enhance people's lives, an economy has turned to the continuation of human misery to support it's people."
And so what? prisons have always had communities around them, there's nothing specific to the current economy about that. Army camps (something else that people can have an ideological objection to) also have communities that develop around them.

Communities develop where people can make a living, the morality, or lack thereof (and it's debatable about what is and is not moral), of the source of said living is immaterial.

[PostModernPatriot]

11:08 AM on 08/13/2009

"Communities develop where people can make a living, the morality, or lack thereof (and it's debatable about what is and is not moral), of the source of said living is immaterial"

The idea that the morality of how people make their living is immaterial is also debatable.

In fact, many people in America today DO think morality is immaterial if it earns them their living, and that is why greed has become a virtue and it is also why the economy is in the state that it's in, it's why we have "housing bubble" that crash, it's why we have risky & questionable securities propping up wealth for a few and the standard of living for many.

If this culture is going to survive, we really better start questioning our morality a little bit more.

How exactly would one "save" a prison" if there was no Gitmo (which has been filled up with a certain number of people whose guilt is very questionable)? Again, I shudder to think of the possibilities.

"Army camps (something else that people can have an ideological objection to) also have communities that develop around them. "

Remember Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex?

Ah, the fifties. Back when morality, standards, values, introspection, civility and caring about one's fellow man were not totally alien concepts.

[PostModernPatriot]

11:11 AM on 08/13/2009

And I think the core point about the "save a prison" concept is -

If the prison is empty, that means there isn't a need for it.

That also means the community that formerly depended on it for survival needs to find a new way to survive.

So....do they survive by finding some artificial means of filling the prison back up so they can live?

Or should they move on to find something more productive for themselves that won't require some kind of artificial "filling up" of a prison?

[Tom95134]

02:14 PM on 08/13/2009

#1. The population of Standish is only about 1600 so saving 340 jobs is very significant.

Originally that area was a major part of the timber boom in Michigan. Today it is primarily a resort area and provide a good focal point for hunters.

[gappedtoothgodwarrior]

06:42 PM on 08/13/2009

I wouldn't bother, by the sound of his posts he's a bit burnt out and can reason clearly. ;)

[PostModernPatriot]

12:45 PM on 08/14/2009

In reality, I don't begrudge the citizens of Michigan the chance to absorb the prisoners of Gitmo. It's already a reality that these prisoners are going to go SOMEWHERE so why not house them in an existing building. I understand that part.

In my post, I was speaking in more general and abstract terms. I consider it dangerous to our freedom for communities to be so dependent on prisons and to build their entire economies around them. There are towns like that all over the country. When a prison is no longer needed and becomes obsolete, there shouldn't be efforts to "create" more prisoners so folks can work. Why not turn the prison into a school or a building that otherwise benefits the community? The private prison interests and correction officers unions lobby for harsher & harsher laws so that prisons can remain full. That's the kind of thing that I am calling dangerous.

[DontFeedTheBeast]

09:53 AM on 08/13/2009

maybe the govt will put them to work making parts for toyota at the old GM plant

[rollingdivision]

09:22 AM on 08/13/2009

GITMO is nothing more than a location. The problem is what should be done with dangerous terror supporting prisoners for whom there isn't anything like enough evidence to bring to trial? And, what should be done with dangerous terror supporting prisoners the government wants to release but no country will accept? Obama's answer is continue to hold them without due process and move them to the US.

[DestinationsUnknown]

08:42 AM on 08/13/2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Italian police have arrested two alleged al-Qaeda terrorists suspected of planning attacks on Britain and France from inside prison.

During wiretapped conversations, the men discussed an attack on Charles De Gaulle airport outside Paris and spoke of the need to "strike at the British", Italian police said.

Bassam Ayachi, 62, a Syrian imam with French citizenship, and Raphael Frederic Gendron, 33, a Frenchman who converted to Islam, were allegedly part of an al-Qaeda cell operating in Europe.
They have been in prison in Bari, a port town in southern Italy, since November, when they were arrested on suspicion of smuggling five illegal immigrants into Italy aboard a camping trailer.

"They are key figures in al-Qaeda's European organisation," said the chief of police in Bari, The wiretap evidence had enabled investigators to "nip the plot in the bud".

They were also suspected of recruiting militants for suicide attacks in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"We are extremely satisfied to have stopped the masterminds, the heads of the organisation, the people who educated would-be suicide attackers in the name of Jihad," said , head of the antiterrorist squad in Bari.

Police said the pair had for years lived in Belgium, where Bassam was an imam at an extremist Islamic centre and one of al-Qaeda's "spiritual guides", while Gendron, a computer expert, was the "media propaganda point man, via the internet, for the French-speaking community."

[uvymopka]

08:29 AM on 08/13/2009

Michigan is a blue state.......send all of them there.

[Wiseup2Day]

08:40 AM on 08/13/2009

Yep..real close to those u nion members we are paying for.

[VotingPresent]

09:33 AM on 08/13/2009

As someone who lives about 25 miles from that prision, I say put them there, so when AQ guys from across the globe come in town to break them out, we will supply discounted hotel room rates and even throw in a free breakfast. Things ARE that bad around here.

[PRONESE]

07:02 AM on 08/14/2009

VotingPresent,
*
*
This is all a part of the stimulus plan. 360 Guards and Facilities workers for around 241 Prisoners. Are these guards qualified to force feed? Training Too!
*
Posish!
*
R/ PRONESE

[mcantwell]

08:07 AM on 08/13/2009

Quote: "Public pressure is mounting to do something to save the Standish prison, the region's largest employer with about 340 workers. Arenac County's unemployment rate already is 17.3 percent and the prison could soon close in a round of state budget cuts.

"If Standish Max becomes vacant, the impact would be devastating," said state Rep. Tim Moore, a Republican who represents the region in the Michigan Legislature. "Arenac County would be a ghost town."

**My bet is that many people would rather see their town turn into ghost town than to accept gitmo detainees. One thing is clear, republicans will go against their own best interest than to do anything to support this President. Healthcare Reform is a prime example.

[gappedtoothgodwarrior]

10:34 AM on 08/13/2009

"My bet is that many people would rather see their town turn into ghost town than to accept gitmo detainees. "

That's a bet you'd lose.

[sandals]

07:36 AM on 08/13/2009

I hope they come here to Michigan, we need the jobs and we have one the greatest Dept. of Correction!
Also, I am sure the anti's will be the terrorists will be coming to Michigan to get us, BULL CRAP!