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President Bush has said he wants to close the American military prison in Guant-namo Bay, Cuba…but news from the White House today suggests it will still be open when Mr. Bush leaves office.
(Why is Guantanamo saying open?) Because there is not the will to close it. Some of his advisors argued against closing it, and Bush agreed with them. (It’s also a complex legal proposition to close Guantanamo in a short period of time.) That is true, I think the next president should come up with a commission who will tackle how to close it. (So what will it take to close it?) They will have to have different sets of procedures for different categories of inmates. Some countries will need to take back their citizens, others will be tried, and others will have to be held in some form of detention. Britain has devised constitutional ways to hold these people. (If a new administration keeps Guantanamo open, will that validate the Bush administration’s policies?) I will go on record predicting that no matter who is elected, Guantanamo will be closed within a year. I think this administration’s policies has been recognized as a failure. The costs of keeping open Guantanamo is more than the benefits. (Why is it important to close Guantanamo?) America’s integrity comes from our values: the rule of law, justice. At the moment we’re proclaiming we stand for those things and we don’t. We are effectively stabbing ourselves in the back.