Guantanamo general faces Pentagon investigation

Even as he nears the final weeks of his term, President Bush is facing more trouble over the handling of prisoners and the war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo.

The Los Angeles Times is fronting a story Saturday by Josh Meyer saying that the Air Force general running the tribunals is facing two investigations into his conduct.

The most serious: an examination into whether he abused his power and "improperly influenced the prosecutions of enemy combatants."

Meyer is reporting that military officials said the internal Air Force investigation of Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann was launched "only after a preliminary inquiry found sufficient grounds to move forward."

After a major setback by the Supreme Court last June, the investigation raises anew questions about the troubled effort to prosecute detainees picked up in Afghanistan and other distant fields in the campaign against terrorism.

Among the allegations against Hartmann that are being reviewed by the Air Force: that he improperly bullied prosecutors, logistics officials and others at Gitmo, leading to cases going to trial before they were ready, and one prosecution in which the charges were unwarranted.

There are also assertions that he used coerced evidence despite objections from prosecutors.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Heesoon Yim / Associated Press

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

Laura Bush pushes for human rights in Cuba, in call to Ladies in White

First Lady Laura Bush has used her final year in the White House to try to influence two of the most doggedly difficult human rights and foreign policy issues to face the Bush administration and its recent predecessors.

She has made a personal crusade of trying to free political opposition leader and human rights campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in Myanmar, and -- on a broader front -- she has tried to bring democracy in general to the country also known as Burma.

And today, she brought a very public spotlight to the Ladies in White, the group of spouses and other relatives of jailed dissidents seeking to bring respect for human rights to Cuba -- as they worked to do in the 2007 protest march pictured above.

Just as her work on behalf of Burmese dissidents has had an "in-your-face" quality, so, too, has her direct challenge to the Castro regime in Cuba.

With Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, who was born in Havana, she spoke with members of the group by digital video conference.

In a written statement issued after the long-distance meeting, she said:

These women show a courage and determination that is deeply moving, and their stories are an important reminder that dictatorship cannot crush the spirit of freedom.

The United States will continue to shine a light on the abuses of the Castro regime, which has imprisoned the husbands, sons and brothers of the Ladies in White, as well as other Cubans who attempt to exercise their fundamental human rights.  The United States supports the efforts of the Ladies in White and other independent civil society activists to free all political prisoners and restore human rights in Cuba.

If the video conference and a statement by the first lady suggest to Cuban Americans in Miami and elsewhere a continued White House effort on behalf of Castro's opponents, well, what Republican campaigner would complain?

-- James Gerstenzang

Photos: Above: Ladies in White in a 2007 protest. Credit: Gregory Bull / Associated Press.

Below: First Lady Laura Bush and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez in video conference with members of the group. Credit: Joyce N. Boghosian / The White House.