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January 22, 2009

Roundtable on Closing Guantanamo

Special Report With Bret Baier

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism, and we are going to do so vigilantly, we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a matter that is consistent with our values and our ideals.

JOHN BOEHNER, (R-OH) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Having a policy in place that says we're going to close Guantanamo without having a plan in place, I think is a dangerous step in the wrong direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: There you see President Obama after signing executive orders today, and reaction from the House Minority Leader John Boehner.

The executive orders he signed ended the CIA secret overseas prisons, banned coercive interrogation techniques, and also promised to close Guantanamo Bay, the detention facility there, within one year.

What about all of this? Some analytical observations from Fred Barnes, executive editor of "The Weekly Standard," Mara Liasson, National Political Correspondent of National Public Radio, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, FOX News contributors all.

Charles, on the details, Mr. Obama decided to set up a cabinet-level review for some of the most challenging aspects of the national security issues here.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Exactly, because he doesn't undo the conundrums. The problems are still here. These steps will get him a lot of sweeping applause from abroad and from the American left, but he knows he's got issues.

In the closing of Guantanamo, he faces the same problem that the Bush administration had, and he doesn't have answers. He wants to have some of the prisoners return home, but there are countries who won't take them. He wants some of them tried in American courts. OK, but there are a large number who can't be tried in American courts.

And he will ultimately end up with a version of the military commissions.

On the interrogation, there is even a larger loophole here. Apparently he is abolishing anything that is not in the army manual, which the CIA has complained about.

But when the White House counsel, Greg Craig was over at CIA and talked with the officials and got a lot of complaints, he said that the White House is open to expanding interrogation techniques in the future beyond what's allowed in the army field manual. And that's what this new study will conduct.

So it means as of now, if we capture Usama, all we can do is offer him a cigarette and ask him his name. But I'm sure that will change in time, because we are going to need serious interrogation of serious jihadists.

BAIER: Mara?

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Yes, that's what I understand from the White House, is that, in the meantime, while this panel is reviewing things, they're going to stick to the army field manual.

And don't forget, this is a big symbolic step he took, to say he's going to close Guantanamo on his second day in office within a year. He has bought himself some time, and they have to figure out what to do with category three.

The category three are the guys who are too dangerous to let out, and you can't try either them because you do have enough, or the evidence is tainted by, we assume, because they were tortured.

But Admiral Blair said today in his testimony that there is this possibility of--the new national director of intelligence--that there is the possibility of the CIA being able to have additional -- he's not calling them "enhanced interrogation techniques," but they would be somehow in addition to the army field manual.

And there would be difference guidance for what you do on the battlefield, or when you actually have somebody that you brought somewhere and put in a room.

But they have set up a process.

BAIER: How will that-

LIASSON: I think what he did today will make the left very happy. He has already gotten a huge round of applause.

Over time, when they finally figure all this out, I think things will look different. And, no, a lot of this won't be known. Exactly what the guidance is to the CIA, that won't ever be spelled out.

I think he has done the right thing politically. He has bought himself some time. In a year, Guantanamo will be closed, and there is consensus on that.

And, as Boehner was warning, these people won't necessarily be brought here. Maybe they will be brought to Afghanistan.

FRED BARNES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": You mean Afghanistan will be the new Guantanamo?

LIASSON: We just don't he know.

BARNES: Look, they can't come here. And already there is a political issue that Republicans have jumped that they want to bar the federal courts from ordering any of them here.

Look, there will be a new Guantanamo. They will have to put them somewhere. They can't bring them here. They have to put them somewhere. And my one question about this is why do this now, except for symbolic PR reasons, when you haven't the slightest idea where to send them?

Look, the notion that the 60 who the Bush administration would like to have sent back to their own country or some other country but nobody would take them, that suddenly Obama is going to be able to sweet talk some country into taking them, or countries, I think that's a little na

And so, what are you going to do to these people? I mean, take Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11. You can't send him to the United States and have him tried in a federal court. What if the court threw out his confession? Would you be able to convict him of any crime? I mean, you can't let the guy go.

I think they will find out how hard it is to close down Guantanamo. I suspect they won't close it down in a year, because if they do, they will just have to open another one.

Announcing it gives Obama a nice day, and I'm sure they'll cheer in Paris and London and Bonn, and places like that. But he's got a tough job ahead of him figuring out actually what to do.

BAIER: Last word on this topic.

KRAUTHAMMER: Look, the policy today is shiny and new and attractive around the world, but it's going to get subtle and changed internally.

As Mara has said, some of these will not be known, and it is not going to be the transparency that all of us have been promised. So that's going to happen in the future, and I think it will help us, because it's going to be needed.

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