Supermax Neighbors Fear Gitmo Influx

Supermax is already home to Unabomber, '20th hijacker'

(NEWSER) - Members of Congress have protested President Obama's efforts to move Guantanamo inmates to US prisons, but residents of Florence, Colo., say they wouldn't mind taking in a few enemy combatants. The supermax prison near town already holds some of the world's most infamous terrorists: a 1993 World Trade Center assailant, the Unabomber, and 9/11's "20th hijacker." "People here don't care about it," the editor of the town's local newspaper told the Los Angeles Times. More»

Thompson site is top contender, but local congressmen are opposed

(NEWSER) - The leading contender to take Guantanamo Bay's prisoners when it shuts down is a federal prison in Illinois, sources tell the Chicago Tribune . The near-empty facility in the small town of Thompson, about 150 miles west of Chicago, would take an unspecified but "limited" number of Gitmo's remaining 215 or so terror suspects. Town residents like the idea of pumping jobs and money into the economy, but local congressmen are incensed. More»

(NEWSER) - Obama administration officials are traveling to Michigan today to visit a maximum-security prison that could be used to hold some or all of the 229 terrorism suspects now at Guantanamo Bay, reports the Detroit News. Members of the Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security Departments are all touring the facility. Local politicians are anxious that the prison may close without the influx of new detainees. More»

Come hell or Supreme Court, administration believes in controversial lock up

(NEWSER) - Despite his stated desire to the contrary, President Bush and his most hawkish aides are determined to keep prison facilities operating at Guantánamo Bay, reports the New York Times. Bush made up his mind following a Supreme Court ruling in the summer granting 250 detainees the right to challenge their incarceration, and never seriously considered State Department or Pentagon proposals to shut down prison operations, according to sources. More»

Officials scrambling to find out how photos landed on jihadist website

(NEWSER) - US officials are at a loss to explain how apparently recent photos of the suspected 9/11 master plotter ended up on a jihadist website . They fear the photos may have been taken and smuggled out of Guantanamo Bay. The photos show a calm, often smiling Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other detainees, reports NBC News . In one, a beatific-looking Mohammed appears to be reading the Koran. The shots seem to have been taken in the high-security Gitmo detention facility in Cuba where Mohammed is currently facing a military tribunal with four others on 9/11 murder and terrorism charges. More»