OpEdNews - Diary: Ambiguous rumblings about impending White House decision to close Gitmo

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According to an article by the Associated Press, "The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere." Sounds good. After all, closure of the Guantanamo prison is something that Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have been calling for for some time. But, the article goes on to say that "President Bush's national security and legal advisers had been scheduled to discuss the move at a meeting Friday, the officials said, but after news of it broke, the White House said the meeting would not take place that day and no decision on Guantanamo Bay's status is imminent." So they're talking about it, but not doing anything about it. Talk is cheap. And who is throwing up the roadblocks? Well, according to the AP article, "Cheney's office and the Justice Department have been against the step, arguing that moving "unlawful" enemy combatant suspects to the U.S. would give them undeserved legal rights." No surprise. But it is appalling to see that Cheney and Gonzales believe that removing detainees from Gitmo would give those detainees "undeserved legal rights." Basic human rights apply to everyone, and it's not Cheney's place, nor Gonzales's place, to determine who is worthy and who is not. Consider also the fact that we've released more people from Gitmo than we've kept there, because many are actually innocent. (Those whom we've released are the "lucky" ones. I hear stories all the time of innocent men and boys who are still trapped at Gitmo.) Apparently, however, that doesn't matter to Cheney. And it doesn't matter to the U.S. Attorney General. They just make up the rules as they go along. Meantime, this nation's Founding Fathers are surely spinning in their graves. -----