Officials: Bush will not close Guantanamo

[unhappycamper]

Officials: Bush will not close Guantanamo
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Despite his stated desire to close the prison at Guantanamo 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, The New York Times reported Tuesday, sourcing senior administration officials.

Bush’s top advisers held meetings this summer after a Supreme Court ruling in June cast doubt on the future of the American detention center. But Bush sided with those who felt that closing Guantanamo would involve too many legal and political risks to be acceptable, now or any time soon, the Times reported officials as saying.

Both presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, have called for closing Guantanamo and could reverse Bush’s policy, though probably not quickly since neither has spelled out precisely how to deal with some of the thorniest legal consequences of shutting the prison, the Times noted.

Closing Guantanamo would most likely mean abandoning prosecutions against some detainees and risking the release of others who still pose a threat to the United States and its allies, the paper reported.

McCain has suggested moving the detainees to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., home of the Army’s prison. His remarks prompted a letter in June from the two Republican senators from Kansas, Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, objecting to the idea on several grounds, according to the Times.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58298%2e

[thunder rising]

1. The American Dachau will continue to function as ordered.