Guantanamo Again
From the NYT: Bush Decides to Keep Guantánamo Open
Here are the key section:
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.
…
Mr. Cheney and his chief of staff, David S. Addington, have made it clear in the internal discussions this year that keeping Guantánamo open under a new president would validate the administration’s decisions dealing with terrorists, the officials said.
…
So, to clarify what seems to have happened: President Bush didn’t bother to consider plans drafted by the State Department or Defense Department to close Guantanamo. Since he didn’t consider the plans, he concluded that the political and legal risks were unacceptable. But how can he know that the risks are unacceptable is the plans were not even considered at a high level?
In short, it seems like Cheney’s office blocked consideration of alternative plans simply in order to keep making the argument that the risks are too high, and that the reason for doing so was to try to get the next administration to somehow validate the decision, even though both Obama and McCain (and almost everyone else both in the U.S. and abroad) agree that the prison should be closed.
Brilliant. Don’t let anyone brief you about an alternative plan and then claim that no acceptable alternative plan exists. Policymaking at its finest.
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