Full Text of HR0762 96th General Assembly
HR0762 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, Governor Pat Quinn has proposed to convey the | 3 |
| Thomson Correctional Center to the United States federal | 4 |
| government for use as a prison and detention facility for | 5 |
| persons subject to the Military Commissions Act of 2006; and
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| WHEREAS, Persons subject to the Military Commissions Act | 7 |
| include persons accused of complicity in some of the gravest | 8 |
| war crimes ever committed by members of the human race; and
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| WHEREAS, The Thomson Correctional Center was designed and | 10 |
| built as a 1,600-bed conventional maximum-security prison | 11 |
| facility, with the security perimeter of a conventional prison, | 12 |
| and is well-suited for this purpose; and
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| WHEREAS, Nothing in this Resolution should be taken as | 14 |
| opposition to using the Thomson Correctional Center as a | 15 |
| conventional 1,600-bed maximum-security prison; we recognize | 16 |
| that this would create much-needed jobs for the Thomson area, | 17 |
| including employment for a significant number of workers in | 18 |
| northwestern Illinois; and
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| WHEREAS, Nothing in this Resolution should be taken as | 20 |
| opposition to the sale, at a fair price, of the Thomson | 21 |
| Correctional Center, to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, for use |
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| as a conventional 1,600-bed prison facility, the purpose for | 2 |
| which it was designed; and
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| WHEREAS, The Quinn proposal contemplates using Thomson, | 4 |
| not as a conventional 1,600-bed maximum-security prison, but as | 5 |
| a federal detention facility for approximately 200 persons | 6 |
| subject to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which covers | 7 |
| unlawful enemy combatants engaged in hostilities against the | 8 |
| United States; and
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| WHEREAS, Unlawful enemy combatants subject to the Military | 10 |
| Commissions Act of 2006 are currently housed at Camp Delta, | 11 |
| Camp V, and Camp Echo at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp at | 12 |
| the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, where they are guarded | 13 |
| by United States armed forces; and
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| WHEREAS, If unlawful enemy combatants against the United | 15 |
| States, subject to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, are | 16 |
| kept in detention, they ought to be kept in a purpose-built | 17 |
| facility that has been constructed for the specialized duty of | 18 |
| keeping them in confinement under extraordinary conditions of | 19 |
| high security, including: (a) the maintenance of a suitable | 20 |
| security perimeter around the facility, and (b) specially | 21 |
| trained and specialized security guards, who should either be | 22 |
| members of the U.S. armed forces or be persons who have | 23 |
| undergone training equivalent to members of the U.S. armed |
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| forces; and
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| WHEREAS, While the current headcount of persons who will be | 3 |
| treated indefinitely as detainees subject to the Military | 4 |
| Commissions Act of 2006 is not public information, a current | 5 |
| press account published in the "New York Times" on May 21, 2009 | 6 |
| indicates that the headcount of detainees currently at | 7 |
| Guantanamo Bay is approximately 200; and of that number | 8 |
| somewhat more than 100 are scheduled, under the current policy | 9 |
| of the administration of President Barack Obama, to be moved to | 10 |
| the United States; and of that number 50 to 100 are likely to | 11 |
| be classified as being too dangerous to ever release; and
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| WHEREAS, This group of 200 Guantanamo Bay detainees, | 13 |
| classified as unlawful enemy combatants subject to the Military | 14 |
| Commissions Act of 2006, is the core group of people at the | 15 |
| heart of this debate over the future of the Thomson | 16 |
| Correctional Center; other unlawful enemy combatants may be | 17 |
| captured and detained in the future, but this is the headcount | 18 |
| of people who are the subject of this debate right now; and | 19 |
| WHEREAS, Even assuming that the Thomson Correctional | 20 |
| Center were to be adaptively re-used as a federal detention | 21 |
| center for up to 200 detainees, it will likely house far fewer | 22 |
| prisoners, and create fewer jobs, than if it is put into use as | 23 |
| the 1,600-bed conventional maximum-security prison that it was |
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| designed to be; and | 2 |
| WHEREAS, There is ongoing concern that the persons detained | 3 |
| in Guantanamo have allies around the world who may respond to | 4 |
| these detentions with an ongoing threat of homicidal violence | 5 |
| that will stretch indefinitely into the future; and | 6 |
| WHEREAS, The federal administrative decision to close the | 7 |
| current detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, and transfer | 8 |
| these detainees to the populated territory of the United | 9 |
| States, and the proposal that they be detained in Illinois, | 10 |
| does not take account of this ongoing and indefinite threat to | 11 |
| the people of the United States, or the people of Illinois; and
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| WHEREAS, Exercising its oversight responsibilities, the | 13 |
| United States Senate, on May 19, 2009, by a bipartisan vote of | 14 |
| 90-6, stripped language from the Supplemental Appropriations | 15 |
| Act of 2009 that would have appropriated $80 million to | 16 |
| implement the closure of the detention camps at Guantanamo, | 17 |
| thereby expressing the sense of a consensus majority of the | 18 |
| Senate that this threat should not be imposed upon the | 19 |
| peaceful, law-abiding people of the United States; therefore, | 20 |
| be it | 21 |
| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 22 |
| NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that |
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| the 1,600-bed Thomson Correctional Center, located in a | 2 |
| thickly-populated rural section of northwest Illinois near the | 3 |
| Mississippi River, is not a suitable facility, nor does it have | 4 |
| a suitable security perimeter, nor is it placed in a suitable | 5 |
| location, for the indefinite detention of up to 200 unlawful | 6 |
| enemy combatants who are subject to the Military Commissions | 7 |
| Act of 2006; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That Governor Patrick Quinn and his | 9 |
| administration should immediately halt all negotiations or | 10 |
| contacts with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. | 11 |
| Department of Homeland Security, and all other relevant federal | 12 |
| offices and departments, relating to the proposed transfer of | 13 |
| the Thomson Correctional Center to the federal government for | 14 |
| purposes of a Military Commissions Act of 2006 detention | 15 |
| facility, until they initiate consultations with the Illinois | 16 |
| General Assembly and receive its consent to undertake this | 17 |
| move; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That we urge the Quinn administration to redouble | 19 |
| its efforts to find a use for the Thomson Correctional Center | 20 |
| as the 1,600-bed maximum-security conventional correctional | 21 |
| facility, the functional use for which it was designed; and be | 22 |
| it further | 23 |
| RESOLVED, That we urge the administration of President |
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| Barack Obama, in the strongest terms, to reconsider its | 2 |
| decision to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, | 3 |
| Cuba, on the grounds that this location, within the island of | 4 |
| Cuba, guarded by the armed forces of the United States, is by | 5 |
| far the best and safest location for the indefinite detention | 6 |
| of unlawful enemy combatants subject to the Military | 7 |
| Commissions Act of 2006; and be it further | 8 |
| RESOLVED, That we commend the United States Senate for its | 9 |
| defense of the people of the United States, and urge the | 10 |
| Congress to maintain its position in favor of the continued | 11 |
| operation of Guantanamo Bay and against the transfer of | 12 |
| unlawful enemy combatants to the territory of the United | 13 |
| States; and be it further | 14 |
| RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this Resolution be | 15 |
| transmitted to the President of the United States, to the two | 16 |
| United States Senators from Illinois, to the nineteen members | 17 |
| of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois, | 18 |
| and to the Governor of Illinois.
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