WASHINGTON - Key House Democrats said Thursday they are considering a plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the end of 2008, with the exception of several dozen detainees in the war on terror who would be kept at the facility and tried there.

Comments:

Methinks the Democrats or the journalist does not know the meaning of "close" if they plan to still keep some detainees there. The better word would be "scale back" or something.

Where are they planning to move the remaining detainees?

Where are they planning to store any new detainees?

One of the main problems politically with Guantanamo is C.Y.A. Sure, when you are in opposition, you can easily rail against this prison. But when you are making the calls on the ground, I am going to guess that you begin to worry about Willie Horton events.

This doesn't just affect the US either. German politicians delayed release of a German citizen for years even after the US wanted to release him as harmless. Why would they do that? Probably because politicians worry about the "harmless" individual who happened to be in Pakistan/Afghanistan/Somalia actually turns out to be not so harmless.

However, closing or moving the facility would be fine by me since it would deprive the terrorists and their fellow travelers of a rallying call. (Do the terrorists even use it as a rallying call? Are their supporters big on the Geneva convention and human rights?) Ed: And yes, that means Bread was right on this...

For any European or Australian detainees, we should expedite their interrogations and send them to their own countries ASAP so they can cause political trouble for those governments instead of ours. In fact, we should specifically state that we will repatriate prisoners unless their own country does not want them. In which case we should require that country to pay the bill, and to advertise on CNN that they do not want their detainees. Why are we letting German leaders criticize us on one hand, while not wanting their own detainees back?

What I really don't understand is how slow the military judicial system seems to be...rules are slowly drawn up, only to be changed over and over. Tribunals drag on, etc. Is this normal for the legal field / government? Combined with CYA, I can see how a lemon farmer can be stuck there for 5 years. That said, you don't think people get stuck in situations like this in every war?

Of course, in Iraq our more liberal (and swift) policy for detainees is probably hurting us very badly. Please consider this when deciding on Guantanamo's detainees, Congress.