Gitmo to Stay Open, Looms Large for Next President

The Pentagon said today that it would drop its charges of war crimes against five detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison, after a former prosecutor testified that the military was withholding key evidence. The chief prosecutor said that these occurrences are not related, and military officials have suggested the charges are likely to be reinstated under a new trial team. The five detainees, meanwhile, will continue to remain in custody.

The news comes on the heels of two other stories involving policies regarding the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The New York Times reports that, according to senior administration officials, President Bush will not close the controversial prison, despite having spoken in the past of wanting to shut it down. The consensus among officials and experts on both sides of the argument cite the enormous political and legal difficulties that would be involved in doing so. Both presidential candidates have called for closing it down, but slightly less clear is how a McCain or Obama administration might handle the relocation, prosecution and detention of some 250 prisoners.

Meanwhile, a federal appeals court has stayed the decision of a judge earlier this month to release 17 men from the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The larger issue at hand is where to release the men, all Uighurs, a Muslim minority of western China. While the U.S. government has lifted its classification of the men as "enemy combatants," they are considered terrorists in their home country. Oral arguments are scheduled for next month.

Public support for the government's policy of holding suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay without a trial vary depending on survey question wording. While 57 percent support it in one ABC News/ Washington Post poll, a Fox News poll indicates an evenly split response when asked if it's fair to hold accused Taliban or al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo Bay without charging or trying them. Responses are similarly mixed when the public is asked if holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has made the U.S. safer from terrorism; 34 percent said it has "somewhat" and 45 percent said it has not.

The last edition of our Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index showed that six in 10 (59 percent) Americans said it's at least "partially justified" to say that the U.S. is so concerned with its own security that it sometimes abuses prisoners in the war on terrorism.