Associated Press has reported that the White House had a meeting scheduled tomorrow to discuss closing the Guantanamo detention facility.
Senior administration officials said Thursday a consensus is building for a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where they could face trial.
President Bush’s national security and legal advisers had been scheduled to discuss the move at a meeting Friday, the officials said, but after news of it broke, the White House said the meeting would not take place that day and no decision on Guantanamo Bay’s status is imminent.
Dick Cheney objects strenuously to the closing, and there was speculation on Countdown tonight that his office leaked word of the meeting in order to postpone it. Gee, I can’t believe Cheney would leak information like that…
The Supreme Court last year declared Bushco’s system for prosecuting enemy combatants to be illegal, and military trubunals recently dismissed charges against two terror suspects. Congress is ratcheting up the pressure, with proposed legislation to force Gitmo’s closure and to guarantee some rights for suspects that have until now been denied.
If Gitmo closes, and Bush can spread detainees around to various facilities, it’s going to be a lot harder to keep an eye on how the prisoners are treated. OTOH, if they’re all moved to Leavenworth, lawyers won’t have to petition the government for permission to travel out of the country to meet with their clients. And perhaps we can proceed to actual trials.
Hey, if a detainee is guilty of terrorism, convict the sucker and put him away for life. But if we continue to allow our government to throw people in prison indefinitely — with no knowledge of the charges against them, no access to counsel, and no trials in the foreseeable future — then we’re lowering ourselves to the level of a dictatorship.
It’s time to start down the road toward reclaiming the moral high ground.