Andy McCarthy directs our attention to this report in the Wall Street Journal that Sen. Lindsey Graham and the White House are close to a deal that would close Guantanamo Bay in exchange for what McCarthy aptly describes as “some amorphous concessions on the legal proceedings to which terrorist detainees will be subjected.”
The deal is a win-win for Graham, who wants both the closing of Gitmo and the amorphous concessions, but it’s a loss for America. As Andy explains:
The good parts of the deal will be either things we’d have gotten anyway (like no civilian trial for KSM) or unenforceable (like promises that the Obama administration will be more open to using options other than the criminal justice system for top terrorists). The bad parts will be horrific, and no matter what Sen. Graham says, he can’t do a thing about them: The place or places where the terrorists are held will become targets that we will have to spend tons of money to protect; the tons of money we have already spent to make Gitmo a first-rate, ideally secured facility, will be lost; and, most significantly, the physical presence in the U.S. of the detainees will mean they are unquestionably in the jurisdiction of the federal courts, where judges will be able to say the Constitution requires all sorts of remedies, including release.
And remember, all of this will be based on the fiction that Gitmo foments anti-U.S. terrorism — and to the extent the U.S. reputation in the world has been tarnished, much more of that has been done by the politicians who’ve attacked Gitmo than by the facility itself, which is a model.
Lindsey Graham has been called a RINO (Republican in name only). The label doesn’t fit because he votes with Republicans most of the time. But to me, Graham is worse than the RINOs because, unlike that breed, he comes from a rock-ribbed conservative state.
A South Carolina Senate seat is a terrible thing to waste on a squishy figure like Graham, who mindlessly subscribes to portions of the liberal narrative and relishes opportunities to stick it to conservative Republicans.
UPDATE: Sen. Graham’s office is disputing the WSJ’s report that a deal is close. It claims that that “we’re not near a deal.”
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.