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Soon after he was confirmed as Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates began to advocate closing down Guantanamo Bay, The New York Times, reports. He argued that the base "had become so tainted abroad that legal proceedings at Guantanamo would be viewed as illegitimate."
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice backed him up. But they had a powerful contingent opposing them:
Mr. Gates’s arguments were rejected after Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and some other government lawyers expressed strong objections to moving detainees to the United States, a stance that was backed by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, administration officials said....[T]he high-level discussions about closing Guantánamo came to a halt after Mr. Bush rejected the approach, although officials at the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the State Department continue to analyze options for the detention of terrorism suspects.
The main logic for Cheney's and Gonzales' opposition was two-fold. First and foremost was the reason that Gitmo was created, because bringing the prisoners to American soil would make things much more complicated -- because of American law. Second was that, even though Bush has said that he wants to eventually close Gitmo, "closing it would be seen as a public admission of an incorrect policy" (i.e. much better for Bush to go back on his word than reverse a disastrous policy).
For now, Gates and Rice are on the losing side of the debate. But that might not last too much longer:
Even so, one senior administration official who favors the closing of the facility said the battle might be renewed.“Let’s see what happens to Gonzales,” that official said, referring to speculation that Mr. Gonzales will be forced to step down, or at least is significantly weakened, because of the political uproar over the dismissal of United States attorneys. “I suspect this one isn’t over yet.”
Comments (55)
vox clamantis in red state wrote on March 23, 2007 8:25 AM:All of this waiting and seeing how this or that will turn out as well as counting the days months years til the reign ends...just more variations on the Friedman unit measure of time...
Lynn Lightfoot wrote on March 23, 2007 8:39 AM:Same ole same ole while folks die violently, tragically to keep these bullies in office, or waste away without any human rights.
More must be done now to end the madness.
Impeach, now!
CINDY wrote on March 23, 2007 8:46 AM:Interesting that all that was leaked. Gates probably leaked it. Good for him. The fact that it was leaked makes you think that the VP is significantly undermined now that rummy is out. Gates obviously isn't part of the club of 'loyal bushies'. Imagine how difficult it's gonna get for Cheney if Gonzales goes. There isn't a true believer out there who'll take his place and back Cheney's facist visions. We can't lose time allowing Cheney to stall the Iraq decisions til the next administration with 'surges' and 'stay the course'... Time to impeach, asap.
TheraP wrote on March 23, 2007 8:49 AM:The timing of this coming out - sounds like a serious storm is gathering within the administration.
"Fear" is the security word. And yes, fear may be motivating this.
Let's keep our eyes and ears open - as the drip, drip of leaking becomes a stream and then a river.
Sagrilarus wrote on March 23, 2007 9:01 AM:CINDY -- "Gates obviously isn't part of the club of 'loyal bushies'."
I think you're right, but I think in this case it's whether he is in the 'loyal Cheneys' club that calls the tune.
I can't help but wonder how vastly different this administration would have been if Cheney had not been the Vice President, and had not had the last word in the President's ear on every issue.
Jude wrote on March 23, 2007 9:07 AM:Hey wait a minute.... didn't Haliburton just get a contract to rebuild or improve or whatever money wasting endevor that will cost us another gazillion dollars??? Makes sense that the DIck would want it to stay open.
Jim Bouman wrote on March 23, 2007 9:08 AM:Guantanamo Bay, the useless "coaling station and naval base," illegally occupied by the U.S. since after the Spanish Cuban American War is absolutely emblematic of our blind pursuit of empire. The despicable gulag grafted onto Gitmo as an adjunct of GWOT merely makes things worse.
I'm not voting for anyone for President who will not promise to begin repair of our relations with all of Latin America by clearing out of Cuba completely and permanently.
Few actions would do as much to regain credibility--at no real cost to our safety--in Latin America as the repudiation of Guantanamo Bay policy and practice.
CarolSoprano wrote on March 23, 2007 9:09 AM:I'm beginning to believe that Gates might be this administration's Schlesinger (Nixon's Defense Secretary) and our best hope for a wee bit of sanity. Hope he starts drafting those secret memos to the Joint Chiefs soon...
TheraP wrote on March 23, 2007 9:10 AM:Story Time!
Once there was a parent who ran the household like a dictator. Some children had to live in the basement and never come out. No one knew why. And no one dared to ask. Other children, who lived upstairs, were worried – but feared they’d be put in the basement if they complained.
Why didn’t the authorities do anything to rescue the children in the basement? Well, the father was a big bush contributor and had the justice system in his pocket.
SamG wrote on March 23, 2007 9:28 AM:I'm glad that Bob Gates appears to be a member of the reality-based community
RickSykes wrote on March 23, 2007 9:51 AM:It seems to me that Guantanomo is in the jurisdiction of DOD and not the Justice Department. Moving prisoners to US soil for trial or indefinite detention seems a reasonable risk. I say this because Gates is demonstating some pragmatic administrative ability and dignity, a respectable characteristic the sycophantic Gonzalez has been unable to muster
Red Emma wrote on March 23, 2007 10:04 AM:Impeach! Impeach! Impeach!
NOW!
Books Alive wrote on March 23, 2007 10:07 AM:Remember the Rumsfeld plan for a $125 million complex to house the courtrooms for any coming Gitmo trials? It sounded luxurious in its appointments. It would have had much more than courtrooms as I recall. The proposal was rejected, thankfully.
Archie wrote on March 23, 2007 10:11 AM:Seems to me that Congress could shut down Gitmo by simply refusing to fund further operations there at some date in the future. Same playbook as the vote pending in Congress today re: Iraq.
Anonymous wrote on March 23, 2007 10:21 AM:Has anyone asked Schwarzkopf what he thinks of the current operation in Iraq?
I remember him so defiantly daring Saddam to prove that he treated POWs as well as the U.S. was treating theirs. Wonder what he thinks of it all now.
----
Does anyone think we've seen the worst abuses? I seriously doubt it.
Bush has made us all torturers and murderers. Our moral authority is at an all time low.
Heckuva job, DUHbya.
sybelia wrote on March 23, 2007 10:21 AM:Has anyone asked Schwarzkopf what he thinks of the current operation in Iraq?
I remember him so defiantly daring Saddam to prove that he treated POWs as well as the U.S. was treating theirs. Wonder what he thinks of it all now.
----
Does anyone think we've seen the worst abuses? I seriously doubt it.
Bush has made us all torturers and murderers. Our moral authority is at an all time low.
Heckuva job, DUHbya.
foggylady wrote on March 23, 2007 10:29 AM:Hey Jude....:}
Yes, Halibirton has lengthy contract for Git Mo which could reach 300 million $$$.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0727-02.htm
and
klyde wrote on March 23, 2007 10:31 AM:http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2005/06/halliburton_is.html
Co-prez cheney says no. The answer is no!
RickSykes wrote on March 23, 2007 10:31 AM:Another point of confusion in Mr. Keil's article: Is the government talking about closing the detention center or the whole Marine Corps base?
Anonymous wrote on March 23, 2007 10:34 AM:Isn't this Kabuki theater? I think so. Gates is the new Powell. He will fight Cheney/Bush tooth and nail on ever vital issue, and lose.
I will grant that it seems the bombing of Iran seems to be on hold and I give Gates some credit for that probably but if Bush calls up in the middle of the night and says launch plan 6 will Gates resign? Haahhhhaa.
Maybe I am wrong on the Gates is the new Powell thing or maybe it is only a matter of degree. Powell being the archtype. Consistent in his centrist positions, utterly servile in his abandonment of them. I am seeing more and more such people and maybe it's just because I have identified the type now but I think it it probably a real trend. History will probably come up with some theories for it. I think it has to do the relentless American abondonment of individualism and the embrace of corporatism.
bill wrote on March 23, 2007 10:36 AM:Can't we find another republican who lost their seat to a dead man and then have him/her appointed our new attorney general?
Zandru wrote on March 23, 2007 10:43 AM:Deputy Secretary of Defense Englund sez American government officials had “an extraordinarily high degree of confidence from the information available” that many Guantánamo detainees were “going to damage the country, so you just can’t let them go.”
One - are these the same officials with the "extraordinarily high degree of confidence" in Saddam's nuclear arsenal?
Two - If I'd been tortured in Gitmo for nearly 6 years, I too might have some desire to "damage the country" that held and tortured me.
Rather than "destroying" terrorists, we've created many, many more. GTMO, Abu Graib, Baghram, and innumerable undisclosed locations have tainted the reputation of the United States. Whoever takes over after Bush will need to repudiate the Bush policies, apologize, and make amends.
The multi-trillion dollar cost of the Iraq invasion will be nothing compared to its aftermath. We're really gonna pay for this one.
Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 23, 2007 11:06 AM:Bush is keeping Gitmo open so when Fidel dies and we invade Cuba, he has some place to put the Cubans who instigated an illegal revolution fifty years ago.
Waiting in Texas wrote on March 23, 2007 11:09 AM:things heating up with Iran - 15 British sailors are in Iranian custody - guess it will be up to us to go and get them and start a confrontation. its all bogus - the more this DOJ and Karl Rove subpoena keep getting traction, Bush will start another attack on Iran to get the media and everyone off what is obviously, just moments away from impeachment, high crimes and treason. The rats are desserting and the news about Bush is going to get worse. This time though, he, Rove and Cheney won't have the support of America. I would think that Dubai, Paraguay and other locations would be looking good to these three right about now.
FMArouet wrote on March 23, 2007 11:16 AM:Waiting in Texas--
Precisely. Good point.
And beware the media spin on Iran's capture of 15 British sailors in the Gulf today. Let's try to establish facts. Juan Cole at juancole.com can surely help guide us.
My initial suspicion is that the British have been conducting aggressive patrolling either in a disupted area or even in well-defined Iranian territorial waters in order to provoke an Iranian response.
Remember in this context the Vincennes incident in 1989, when a U.S. guided missile cruiser in Iranian territorial waters shot down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing all 290 persons on board. The initial Pentagon and media spin sought to blame the civilian airliner for having flown a "threatening" flight path. Subsequent investigation demonstrated that the Iranian airliner had done everything according to the books, was in a regular civilian air corridor, was emitting the right identifying electronic signature, and was in a normal ascent (not threatening descent) path. The fault in this case was a "group think" blunder by the crew and Captain (Will Rogers, III) of the Vincennes.
Oh, and then there was that incident in the Gulf of Tonkin a while back.
Remember how Bush once suggested to Tony Blair that we could create a pretext for the invasion of Iraq by painting a plane with UN colors and then sending it over Iraq to be shot down?
August, 1914, anyone? Or maybe September, 1939?
Legalize wrote on March 23, 2007 11:23 AM:Clearly, Bob Gates hates America. Everyone knows the U.S. doesn't torture, but that when we do torture it's only to stop nuclear bombs from being detonated in Times Square, which if my unserstanding of '24' is accurate, is an event that is likely to occur pretty much all the time. My point to Bob Gates is twofold: (1) do you want nuclear bombs to go off in Times Square? and (2) Bill Clinton did the same thing -but worse.
cerebrocrat wrote on March 23, 2007 11:24 AM:I think the single most powerful step the next president could take by way of repairing our foreign policy would be to close gitmo down as his/her very first act in office. The new pres comes in, immediately snaps that playbook shut, and the world suddenly has reason to believe that the US is a rational actor again.
epv wrote on March 23, 2007 11:42 AM:HOW SHORT ARE SOME PEOPLE'S MEMORIES...
When Human Rights Organizations & Civil Rights Advocates were clamouring for Guantanamo Bay to be closed-- and even European leaders who visited the White House asked Bush to shut-down the neo-con Bushies' Guantanamo Bay concentration camp-- Condo-sleezy Rice was defending the right to defy the Geneva Conventions.
Condo-sleezy Rice has done a major FLIP-FLOP-- which she does depending upon whatever Bush's current whim is-- and who has his ear. Rice is despicable.
When Cheney, Rumsfeld & Rove were running-the-show, Rice would come-out in defense of Guantanamo Bay- rendition- and all of the other vile practices, which are in defiance of the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. War Crimes Act, and International Law.
Now that the winds-of-change have put Bush on the defensive, Rice is cuddling-up to Gates... Rice is pathetic-- she is no more than an OIL-WHORE!
Anonymous wrote on March 23, 2007 11:43 AM:Yes, any "incidents" with Iran at this point in time, with all the scandals threatening to bring down the neocon house of cards, are VERY worrisome. These guys need a distraction desperately, and the wounded, cornered animal is ALWAYS the most dangerous, most unpredictable of beasts.
epv wrote on March 23, 2007 11:47 AM:P.S. Forgot to add that Condo-sleezy Rice acts based upon political winds-- and has absolutely NO PRINCIPLES (except to enlarge her already massive warehouse of designer-outfits & shoes)...
By the way, has anybody heard whether Rice responded to Senator Jim Webb's request for the written response that she promised to provide in answer to his question about whether or not Bush could launch a pre-emptive war upon Iran, without seeking congressional approval? Rice promised to respond in writing-- because she had to run-back to the White House to get Rove's spin... But, she never kept her promise, so Webb asked her to be true to her word...
Did Rice keep her word?
dan wrote on March 23, 2007 12:47 PM:impeachment now. there is no good alternative.
Mcboo wrote on March 23, 2007 1:43 PM:I think that the USA purge and the subsequent subpoenas have many D.C. operatives very very nervous. This smells a little like a CYA maneuver to me. But any movement towards closing down that American cancer is a good thing I suppose.
It really is amazing what even just the THREAT of oversight can do. It's been absent for far to long in American politics.
Robin Boerner wrote on March 23, 2007 1:49 PM:A Gates dog and pony show. Gates couldn't get past one Senate confirmation because of his spook Iran Contra ties.
He has done nothing about a Ft Richardson Command Center employee assaulting a 100% disabled veteran, John Mitchell in a public store in Alaska in order to disrupt a federal Civil Rights lawsuit against the US Army. Neither has the Alaska US Patriot Act US Attorney Nelson Cohen. They informed John Mitchell's lawyer that the US Attorney was not taking a position. I suppose enforcing Civil Rights would cost him his USA job in the Bush DOJ. See the link at my name.
Is Gates proposing we close Gitmo because he is against torture and secret prisions...or because this one isn't secret enough for his agenda. His past history and his lack of concern for what underlings as Sec of Def are up to right here within the US suggests he has other motives.
ironie wrote on March 23, 2007 1:58 PM:WHY CAN'T CONGRESS CUT FUNDING FOR GITMO??????
Paul wrote on March 23, 2007 4:15 PM:Wonder if the Bushies have thought of just renaming Guantanamo the way they did School of the Americas. Something like "Western Hemisphere Institute for Terrorism Reduction."
Emily wrote on March 23, 2007 7:42 PM:The White House has said that Guantanamo Bay will remain open so long as Bush is in office. Well, that's it-- and Gates later came-out saying that the "legal issues" had been resolved. Condi is hiding in Ferragamo shoe store [ http://www.artdish.com/ubbcgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=000059 ]
So, that's that!
Bush reminds me of a rabies-ridden dog set-loose on a residential street, who poops on every lawn. In other words, it's up to the rest of us to clean-up Bush's mess AFTER he leaves office. [How much more sh*t is to be thrust upon us, before this disastrous neo-con regime is finally gone?]
doug r wrote on March 23, 2007 10:58 PM:So...in keeping with that court decision that Gitmo isn't US territory....come on in, Cuban Militia!
The Oracle wrote on March 23, 2007 11:14 PM:Just as the next president will have to shut down the Iraq War, the next president will have to shut down Gitmo.
Leave it to Bush to leave it to the Democrats to clean up the mess he's made.
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