just in off the ap

6/21/2007 5:55:12 PM

http://cbs13.com/topstories/topstories_story_172173626.html

Quote :

"AP) WASHINGTON The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned. President Bush's national security and legal advisers are expected to discuss the move at the White House on Friday and, for the first time, it appears a consensus is developing, senior administration officials said Thursday. The advisers will consider a new proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where they could face trial, said the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations. Officials familiar with the agenda of the Friday meeting said Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace were expected to attend. It was not immediately clear if the meeting would result in a final recommendation to Bush. Previous plans to close Guantanamo have run into resistance from Cheney, Gonzales and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But officials said the new suggestion is gaining momentum with at least tacit support from the State and Homeland Security departments, the Pentagon, and the Intelligence directorate. Cheney's office and the Justice Department have been dead set against the step, arguing that moving "unlawful" enemy combatant suspects to the U.S. would give them undeserved legal rights. They could still block the proposal, but pressure to close Guantanamo has been building since a Supreme Court decision last year that found a previous system for prosecuting enemy combatants illegal. Recent rulings by military judges threw out charges against two terrorism suspects under a new tribunal scheme. Those decisions have dealt a blow to the administration's efforts to begin prosecuting dozens of Guantanamo detainees regarded as the nation's most dangerous terror suspects. In Congress, recently introduced legislation would require Guantanamo's closure. One measure would designate Fort Leavenworth as the new detention facility. Another bill would grant new rights to those held at Guantanamo Bay, including access to lawyers regardless of whether the prisoners are put on trial. Still another would allow detainees to protest their detentions in federal court, something they are now denied. Gates, who took over the Pentagon after Rumsfeld was forced out last year, has said Congress and the administration should work together to allow the U.S. to permanently imprison some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere so the facility can be closed. Military officials told Congress this month that the prison at Fort Leavenworth has 70 open beds and that the brig at a naval base in Charleston, S.C., has space for an additional 100 prisoners."

[Edited on June 21, 2007 at 6:01 PM. Reason : article link]

6/21/2007 6:00:02 PM

Does closing the facility = giving the land back to Cuba?

6/21/2007 6:25:02 PM

The administration's been wanting to shut down Guantanamo for a while, but they had no idea what they were going to do with the prisoners. Bringing them back to the United States would make the administration more vulnerable to constitutional questioning while sending them back to their homelands would almost guarantee their reimprisonment or execution at the hands of their native governments. I guess the political price for gitmo is getting to the point where it doesn't make any difference where the prison is anymore.

6/21/2007 6:31:38 PM

^^ It was never taken from Cuba.

The US mails Cuba a rent check for it every month - Castro just doesn't cash it.

6/21/2007 7:02:26 PM

^ really? never heard that... how much is it for? when he dies i might try to organize a coup and i wanna know what size backdated checks i should be looking for

6/21/2007 7:19:21 PM

^It's some low amount like $50

Quote :

"Washington still pays the rent, set a century ago at 2,000 gold coins a year and now worth just over $4,000, even though Mr Castro refuses to cash the cheques."

[Edited on June 21, 2007 at 7:25 PM. Reason : klk;]

6/21/2007 7:23:43 PM

Pakistani Militant Leader Is Killed

Quote :

"QUETTA, Pakistan -- A Taliban veteran of Guantanamo Bay who became one of Pakistan's most-wanted rebel leaders killed himself with a hand grenade Tuesday after he was cornered by security forces, officials said."

Quote :

"Mehsud was wanted in 'many terrorist cases,' Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said. 'He was a supporter of the al-Qaida terror network and an active Taliban commander in Pakistan.'"

Quote :

"Mehsud was incarcerated in the jail for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after he was captured by U.S.-allied Afghan forces in northern Afghanistan in December 2001. It remains unclear why he was released from Guantanamo in March 2004. He quickly took up arms again, leading local and foreign militants in Pakistan's South Waziristan, a mountainous stronghold of militants in the tribal belt considered a possible hideout for al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri. Mehsud was wanted for the kidnapping that year of two Chinese engineers, one of whom died in a rescue raid by Pakistani commandos. But he escaped a manhunt by the Pakistani army."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/24/AR2007072400521.html?sub=new

Yeah, this is the kind of motherfucker that we need to let loose back into the world.

7/28/2007 11:54:53 AM

Quote :

"The advisers will consider a new proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities"

ROLL ROLL ROLL

7/28/2007 11:58:20 AM

Gitmo prisions =/= Gitmo base

7/28/2007 3:27:39 PM