Closing Gitmo?

OK, I'm as despairing as the rest of you about the ability for anything positive to come about over the next 18 months or so of this Bush Presidency. But the AP has a story that may cheer some people, if it's true.

The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

President Bush's national security and legal advisers are expected to discuss the move at the White House on Friday and, for the first time, it appears a consensus is developing, senior administration officials said Thursday.

You may recall that this is what Robert Gates recommended when he first became the Secretary of Defense, but he was outvoted. Dick "Fourthbranch" Cheney will still be involved in the discussions, according to the story, so it's not clear that this is a slam dunk:

The advisers will consider a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where they could face trial, said the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations.

Officials familiar with the agenda of the Friday meeting said Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace were expected to attend.

It was not immediately clear if the meeting would result in a final recommendation to Bush.

Obviously, Fourthbranch doesn't want these detainees coming into this country because they might have (gasp!) legal rights to challenge their detention. But considering how the legal rulings have been going, against even the new Military Commissions Act, it seems like the Administration would not give up that much by closing Guantanamo, as well as gaining increased support among allies and the civilized world.

Of course, this has never been much of a concern for them in the past. But if this is true and the White House is indeed about to close Gitmo, we have to see this as something positive that has come out of the progressive movement. Closing Guantanamo was a fringe idea not so long ago. Now it's uttered by Democratic Presidential candidates and Republican former Secretaries of State alike. In fact, legislation requiring the closing of Guantanamo has been introduced by, of all Democrats, Dianne Feinstein in the Senate and Jane Harman in the House.

It's because we were not silent. We understood how this inhumane treatment of indefinite detentions, the denial of the Great Writ of habeas corpus, the shame of torture, has damaged all of all souls and lessened our moral standing around the globe. We kept at it and kept at it until this became the majority opinion in this country. And it's the same with Iraq. Sure, Washington's behind the curve on a lot of things. But we need to keep dragging them along. I get frustrated too, and I understand the crisis of confidence that America has at this time. But we have to keep fighting, because every so often, we can get potential victories like this.

UPDATE: The White House is denying the report. Doesn't mean it's not happening, of course, but they're denying it publicly. Stay tuned.