How to Fix Guantanamo

An estimated 75% of its inmates there are no longer even being interrogated. After the Supreme Courts rebuke, what can the U.S. do to improve its handling of detainees?

The Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld totals 185 pages and can be summarized in two words: Start over. If the Bush Administration wants to try terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay in special military tribunals, it can't just declare them legal--it needs to work with the other branches of government to make them so. That in itself was a rebuke to the Administration's claim that it alone can decide how to defend Americans from terrorism. What the court did not say--despite the exultation of civil libertarians and the outrage of advocates of executive power--is that Guantánamo has to be closed....

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