Obama, Graham may form alliance to close Guantanamo

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama this week may have found an unlikely ally in his quest to close Guantanamo Bay. Conservative Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.- S.C., pledged his support, saying that he understood the detention center hurts America’s fight to win the War on Terror.

“President (George W.) Bush said we needed to close Guantanamo,” Graham said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ Sunday. “Sen. (John) McCain said it would be better to close it. I believe that.”

But to paraphrase the late economist Milton Friedman, in politics there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Graham said he will only drum up Republican votes to close Guantanamo if the administration agrees to try a number of the base’s most dangerous detainees in military commissions rather than through the civilian criminal court system.

“We need a legal system that gives due process to the detainee, but also understands they didn’t rob a liquor store,” Graham said. “We’re at war, and some of this information is very sensitive and classified.”

Graham specifically called for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind, to be tried in a military commission.

The question of where to try terrorists—especially the more notorious terrorists, like KSM—is a political hot potato. The controversy came to a head last month when the White House agreed to relocate KSM’s trial from the heart of New York City to an as-yet-undetermined location.

He was originally slated to be tried just blocks from Ground Zero, but an outpouring of bipartisan protest forced the administration to reverse course and agree to look for a new location.  Attorney General Eric Holder, who initially championed a civilian court trial for KSM and his co-conspirators, has now said all options are on the table, including a military commission.

The commissions system has long been used to try alleged war criminals and was ruled constitutional in 1942 in a Supreme Court case that concerned the trials of German saboteurs. Critics of the system argue that detainees in Guantanamo can be held indefinitely and are subjected to inhumane treatment. But proponents point out that, once in a military commission, defendants receive a fair trial and an experienced lawyer.

Graham said the detainee debate is not black-and-white.

“We will never win this war until we understand the effect that Guantanamo Bay has had on the overall war effort,” he said. “And we’ll never get the support of the American people if we can’t prove to them that these folks that we’re dealing with are not common criminals. We have got to win this war within our values system, but understand that it’s a war.”

In Washington’s sharply partisan environment, it will certainly be interesting to see whether Obama will join up with the man who was once considered  a serious contender to be McCain’s 2008 running mate in the presidential race against Obama.