Morale is high return to the White House? Officials familiar with the agenda of the meeting said on Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff , National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, chairman were expected.
It was not immediately clear if the meeting will lead to a final recommendation for Bush.
previous plans to close Guantanamo have run into resistance from Cheney, Gonzales and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But officials said of the new proposal is gaining momentum with one or tacit support of the State and Homeland Security departments, the Pentagon and the Intelligence Directorate.
Cheney's office and the Department of Justice have been dead against running, arguing that moving "unlawful enemy combatant suspects" in the U.S. 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 precedent for further unlawful enemy combatants. Recent rulings by military judges dismissed charges against two terrorism suspects under a new tribunal scheme.
Those decisions have dealt a blow to the administration's efforts to begin pursuing dozens of Guantanamo detainees regarded as suspects of the nation's most dangerous terror.
In Congress, recently introduced legislation would require the closure of Guantanamo. A measure to designate Fort Leavenworth as the new detention center.
Another bill would grant new rights to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including access to lawyers regardless of whether the prisoners are put to the test. Another would allow detainees to protest against their detention in federal court, they are now denied.
Gates, who took over the Pentagon after Rumsfeld was forced last year, said the administration and Congress must work together to allow the U.S. to imprison permanently some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere though the school may 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, SC, has space for 100 more prisoners.
The prison at Guantanamo Bay, where some 380 terror suspects are currently detained, has been a flashpoint for criticism of the Bush administration at home and abroad. It was created in 2002 to house terror suspects captured in military operations, particularly Afghanistan.
Because the facility is in Cuba, the administration argued that the detainees are not covered by the rights and protections afforded to those in U.S. prisons.
Human rights defenders and foreign leaders were asked several times its closure, and the prison is regarded by many as proof of U.S. double standards on fundamental freedoms in the fight against terrorism.
Some of the detainees come from countries that are U.S. allies, including Britain, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Each of those governments raised complaints about the conditions or duration of detention, or the possibility that detainees could face death sentences.
Rice said she would like to see Guantanamo closed if a safe alternative could be found. She said during a trip to Spain earlier this month that "the United States has no desire to be the jailer of the world".
"I do not think anyone wants to see Guantanamo open one day longer than necessary. But I also suspect nobody wants to see a number of dangerous people simply released into the street," she said.
On Thursday, two Democratic lawmakers Rep. Alcee hastin.
Posted on June 25, 2010.
