Reuters wrote last night, “The federal government will buy an Illinois prison that the Obama administration once considered as a successor to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday.”

Politico adds, “The unusual move to ‘reprogram’ existing Justice Department funding bypassed House appropriators, who had objected to the purchase. . . . In 2010, the Obama administration and Durbin floated the idea of moving some Guantanamo prisoners to the Illinois facility, but the proposal was opposed by Congressional Republicans as well as civil liberties and human rights groups, and the House later voted overwhelmingly to prevent the transfer of any Gitmo prisoner to the U.S.”

Indeed, Reuters notes, “Congress blocked funding for President Barack Obama’s idea and tightly restricted all transfers from the camp at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba.”

But the purchase still raises some serious concerns, especially because the Obama administration went ahead with the purchase without approval from Congress.

NPR.com: Future Detainee Prison Will Go Beyond ‘Supermax’

Comments

comments