Guantanamo Today, Guantanamo Tamarrah, Guantanamo Forever
Remember when George W. Bush was supposed to be considering closing Guantanamo Bay? Explain why anyone ever believed that would happen, please. The New York Times:
“„Despite his stated desire to close the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, President Bush has decided not to do so, and never considered proposals drafted in the State Department and the Pentagon that outlined options for transferring the detainees elsewhere, according to senior administration officials.
“„Mr. Bush’s top advisers held a series of meetings at the White House this summer after a Supreme Court ruling in June cast doubt on the future of the American detention center. But Mr. Bush adopted the view of his most hawkish advisers that closing Guantánamo would involve too many legal and political risks to be acceptable, now or any time soon, the officials said.
The “legal risks” are called “due process of law” and “adherence to universally-embraced standards of civilization.”
Boumediene v. Bush destroyed the entire rationale for Guantanamo: to hold terrorism detainees beyond the reach of the legal system. There is no argument for keeping detainees at Guantanamo. It’s ludicrous to believe that federal detention facilities aren’t secure enough to hold skinny men from Afghanistan. I saw these detainees with my own eyes in July 2005. They’re not the Thunderbolts. Failing to shutter Guantanamo is acquiescence to illegality.
