The Economist on Embracing Guantanamo

The Economist has run a thoughtful and interesting column on my idea that President Obama should embrace Guantanamo. The column contains a few factual errors. It attributes this argument to my book, Detention and Denial, whereas it in reality postdates the book. It was, rather, my reaction to the recent congressional restrictions on transfers from the base. It also describes me as someone who “argued until recently in favour of closing Guantánamo.” This is not accurate. I have never argued either for or against closing the base–arguing instead that the focus on facilities was a misplaced distraction from designing good detention policy. To be clear, I was never a supporter of closing Guantanamo, and I am not now an opponent of closing it. With those quibbles, however, the column nicely encapsulates my current thinking on the subject:

Continue reading Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare…