Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham doesn’t understand why detainees would want to leave the tropical paradise that is the US military’s detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

After all, “the inmates like Gitmo” because they “get to play in the cages all day.”

Ingraham made her comments during a segment on Fox & Friends discussing the news that the federal government plans to transfer between 35 and 90 Guantanamo detainees to an unused prison facility in Thomson, Illinois.

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“This shows you how tone-deaf the administration is,” Ingraham said. “Gitmo works well. The inmates like Gitmo. It’s secure. We already paid for it. And I think we have to stop doing things like buying things we can’t afford. We don’t have the money for this facility. … I guess this is another jobs project for the Obama administration.”

Indeed, the new facility is expected to create between 2,340 and 3,250 jobs and bring $790 million to $1.1 billion into the local economy over four years.

But the real issue, according to Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, is that it gets cold in the winter in Illinois.

“It’s actually nicer at Gitmo,” Kilmeade said.

“Yeah, you get the sun, you get to play in the cages all day,” Ingraham said.

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The idea that Guantanamo is a vacation wonderland whose inmates prefer to be there would likely be challenged by Rhuhel Ahmed, Jamal al-Harith, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul, four former detainees who have been working to sue former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others for abuse they say they suffered at the facility, including being threatened with dogs, having their beards shaved against their religion’s teachings, being placed in alternately hot and cold prison cells, and even “sexual abuse.”

This video is from Fox News’ Fox & Friends, broadcast Dec. 15, 2009.





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