or; what will the fallout be?
B-B-B-B-BREAKING NEWS! The Associated Press has discovered that the Bush administration may be close to closing the doors on the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, de facto "home" to many terror suspects and other detainees for all these years now.
Of course, after the breaking of the story, the backpedaling begins. From the article:
Three senior administration officials spoke about the discussions on condition of anonymity because they were internal deliberations.
Expected to consult soon, according to the officials, were Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace.
Previous plans to close Guantanamo ran into resistance from Cheney, Gonzales and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. But officials said the new suggestion is gaining momentum with at least tacit support from the State and Homeland Security departments, the Pentagon and the Intelligence directorate.
Cheney's office and the Justice Department have been against the step, arguing that moving "unlawful" enemy combatant suspects to the United States would give them undeserved legal rights.
They could block the proposal, but pressure to close Guantanamo has been building since a Supreme Court decision last year that found illegal a previous system for prosecuting enemy combatants. Recent rulings by military judges threw out charges against two terrorism suspects under a new tribunal scheme.
So . . . if they close up Gitmo, what happens next? Where do these accused terrorists go? Another military facility? If so, which "lucky" place gets them?
After all, according to Condi Rice herself (of Gilmore Girl's mailbox fame), the United States "doesn't have any desire to be the world's jailer."
I feel that the situation in Guantanamo has probably done more harm for American influence and power abroad than good it may have done. And hey, Laura and Barbara Bush are with me on this, both supposedly referring to Gitmo as a "blot on the US record abroad."
So, JU, what do you think? Close Gitmo? Keep it open? Where do those people go if they close it? I'm interested to see what you have to say.
EDIT: I forgot the article link. Here you go.