From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Unfortunately Cheney still  appears to be pulling the puppet strings

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/washington/23gitmo.html?ei=5065&en=0ab05aeb2e
8a43a5&ex=1175227200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, March 22 - In his first weeks as defense secretary, Robert M.
Gates repeatedly argued that the detention facility at Guant namo Bay,
Cuba, had become so tainted abroad that legal proceedings at Guant namo
would be viewed as illegitimate, according to senior administration
officials. He told President Bush and others that it should be shut down as
quickly as possible.

Mr. Gates's appeal was an effort to turn Mr. Bush's publicly stated desire
to close Guant namo into a specific plan for action, the officials said. In
particular, Mr. Gates urged that trials of terrorism suspects be moved to
the United States, both to make them more credible and because Guant namo's
continued existence hampered the broader war effort, administration
officials said.

Mr. Gates's arguments were rejected after Attorney General Alberto R.
Gonzales and some other government lawyers expressed strong objections to
moving detainees to the United States, a stance that was backed by the
office of Vice President Dick Cheney, administration officials said.

As Mr. Gates was making his case, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
joined him in urging that the detention facility be shut down,
administration officials said. But the high-level discussions about closin

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