U.S. to move some Guantanamo detainees to Illinois

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration said Tuesday it will move some Guantanamo Bay detainees to an Illinois prison, in a move that drew immediate fire from Republicans worried about bringing high-risk prisoners to U.S. soil.

A letter from President Barack Obama's top national security aides said the U.S. government will proceed with buying the Thomson Correctional Centre in northwestern Illinois "to house a limited number of detainees from Guantanamo" as well as other federal inmates.

"Not only will this help address the urgent overcrowding problem at our nation's Federal prisons, but it will also help achieve our goal of closing the detention centre at Guantanamo in a timely, secure, and lawful manner," said the letter to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates, among others.

When Obama took office in January, he gave himself one year to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. naval detention camp prison opened in 2002 after the September 11, 2001 attacks to house foreign terrorism suspects.

But Republicans and others criticized his administration's plans to transfer the prisoners to the United States and try them in civilian courts as a security risk.

Congress enacted a law barring Guantanamo detainees from being brought onto U.S. soil except if they were going to be prosecuted. Democrats, who control both houses of Congress, are planning to lift that restriction if the administration comes up with an acceptable plan for dealing with the prisoners.

Republicans quickly signalled their opposition. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Americans and Congress had "already rejected bringing terrorists to U.S. soil for long-term detention, and current law prohibits it."

"The administration has failed to explain how transferring terrorists to Gitmo North will make Americans safer than keeping these terrorists off of our shores in the secure facility in Cuba," he said.

House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Republican ranking member Lamar Smith of Texas said the move would give "...terrorist enemy combatants access to the same rights as U.S. citizens."

"Once on U.S. soil, whether detained in a prison or awaiting trial, Gitmo terrorists can argue for additional rights under the Constitution that may make it harder for prosecutors to obtain a conviction," Smith said in a statement.

The administration's letter said the Defence Department would operate a part of the prison, located in a rural area west of Chicago, devoted to housing the Guantanamo detainees.

"The security of the facility and the surrounding region is our paramount concern," it said.

The facility was built in 2001 to maximum security specifications, and after acquisition it will be enhanced to exceed security standards at the country's only "supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado, where there has never been an escape or external attack, the letter said.

Quinn and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, who were being briefed at the White House on the decision, praised it in a statement Tuesday.

Durbin and Quinn said last week that the Illinois facility, which is mainly empty, would be turned into a federal maximum security prison, and a portion of it would be leased to the Defence Department to house some detainees.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner and Ross Colvin; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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