President Bush sides with Dick Cheney: Closing Gitmo a no-go

Chalk it up as one last big win for Vice President Dick Cheney and his secretive -- OK, that's redundent when talking about a Cheney guy -- chief of staff, David Addington.

Remember when the U.S. Supreme Court last June rejected President Bush's policy of holding foreign prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said the men had a right to seek their freedom before a federal judge?

Remember when the president said in August 2007, "it should be a goal of the nation to shut down Guantanamo?" (Of course, he added, closing it is easier said than done.)

Never mind -- at least for now or anytime in the near future.

The State Department reportedly prepared memos on transferring the prisoners; so did the Pentagon. Bush considered none of them.

That's according to a report in today's New York Times, which said that after the Supreme Court ruling, Bush "adopted the view of his most hawkish advisors that closing Guantanamo would involve too many legal and political risks to be acceptable, now or any time soon."

Steven Lee Myers, writing in The Times, says that despite the president's stated desire to close Gitmo, and the pressure that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have applied to accomplishing that, they have "acquiesced to the arguments of more hawkish advisors, including Vice President Dick Cheney."

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said of the Guantanamo decision: "It's very complex. It's complicated. It's difficult."

She said the admininistration was working to reduce the population at the prison -- and had brought it down from about 600 to 270.

"It's not as easy as snapping your fingers" and closing the prison, she said, adding, "unless you don't care."

That was a reference to the 7% of released detainees who, she said, have returned to the battlefield.

"It's slow work," Perino said at the daily White House news briefing this morning. "The president has made a decision to close Guantanamo Bay. That has not changed."

As for Cheney, his spokeswoman, Megan Mitchell, said by e-mail seconds after Perino spoke: "You heard from Dana in the briefing. I don't have anything to add beyond that."

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Beatrice de Gea / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Pat Lutz]

I agree with Bush and "Big Dick". Gitmo should stay open if only to have a place for both of them to be placed until the World Court can take try them for war crimes. We need to save space for Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft, Gonzalzes, Yoo, Gates, Mukasey.