Marc Ambinder finds a hidden news story in this WaPo report by Perry Bacon:
Administration officials say they expect that as many as 40 of the 215 detainees at Guantanamo will be tried in federal court or military commissions. About 90 others have been cleared for repatriation or resettlement in a third country, and about 75 more have been deemed too dangerous to release but cannot be prosecuted because of evidentiary issues and limits on the use of classified material.
He correctly notes that, while Bacon’s piece focuses on the shifting mood of the Senate, the real story is that 75 of 215 Gitmo detainees — that is, more than a third of them — have been deemed “Fifth Category” types who will get neither a hearing nor a release.
This is remarkable, indeed, given the Obama administration’s public position on Gitmo. Obama made it a point to order Guantanamo closed on his first full day in office and campaigned strongly against it. But, once elected, he moderated his policy.
The reality is that we have these people locked up and have no good options as to what to do with them. In many cases, they can’t be expatriated. In others, there’s either not enough evidence to prove them “guilty” beyond reasonable doubt or said evidence is tainted by treatment deemed appropriate for foreign terrorist suspects but not innocent-until-proven-guilty criminal defendants. Releasing them into American cities would not only be dangerous but political suicide.
So moving them to a Gitmo in all but name is the least bad option.
via Spencer Ackerman
