Gitmo detainees said likely to go to Ill.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- The Obama administration has briefed Illinois lawmakers on a plan to move terrorism suspects from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to their state, sources say.

Officials from the White House, the Defense Department and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons met last week with more than a dozen members of the Illinois congressional delegation in the office of Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., to push the plan, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Administration sources said detainees would be transferred to the nearly-empty Thomson Correctional Center, a state prison, which the U.S. government would buy for $145 million, the Post said.

When a member of Congress asked when the White House would make a decision,

National Security Council member David Rapallo smiled and answered, "Soon," the newspaper said, citing an unnamed participant in the briefing.

Opposition to the plan is being led by Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who the Post said attended the briefing and asked tough questions.

"The administration needs to respond in writing so the story can't change and the details are specific," said Kirk, a candidate for President Barack Obama's former Senate seat.

Kirk has warned that holding the terrorism suspects at Thomson would turn Chicago and Illinois into "ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization."