Bush to Close GTMO???

I am concerned about a report I heard tonight about Guantanamo Bay.

Several Democratic presidential candidates have indicated they would close Guantanamo Bay and the other secret torture camps the Bush administration has been using around the world. Richardson and Edwards both pledged to do this their first day in office.

Now I hear that President Bush wants to close Guantanamo - but of course not the other torture camps. The prisoners we are currently torturing at Guantanamo (using techniques developed in 2002 and later replicated at Abu Ghraib) will be separated and transferred to lower profile facilities worldwide.

I seriously doubt, given the history of this administration, that President Bush has had a revelation about the moral repugnance and ineffectiveness (for intelligence purposes) of torture.

But the administration has realized that Guantanamo Bay is an enormous thorn in their side from a public relations standpoint both with the voters at home and with the civilized world who now see the USA as a rogue state in open violation of international law and moral standards.

Scattering these prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to secret torture camps worldwide will make it much more difficult for the next administration to put a stop to the torture and to make sure that we, the American people, never tolerate such an outrage in our name again.

The broom is in place. The carpet has been lifted. A few thousand victims of institutionalized American torture are about to be swept under it.

rbs