Let’s see: Mark Sanford’s disgraced, Michael Jackson’s dead, that couple that everybody else in the universe obsessed over divorced or something, and the Democrats in Congress managed to pass the Twenty-First century’s answer to Smoot-Hawley – yes, this would be a nigh-perfect time to break the news that indefinite detention’s back on the agenda. The only way that it would have been better timing would have been if Tiger Woods had broken his leg again, in fact.

White House Is Drafting Executive Order to Allow Indefinite Detention of Terror Suspects

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war.

Not much else to say, except of course that this isn’t really a surprise. It’s Gitmo or extraordinary rendition; other countries need to be bribed or browbeaten into openly taking our illegal combatants, and they are certainly distinctly unwelcome on American soil. If I had to guess, we’re going to end up with extraordinary rendition – and no, that isn’t the right answer.

Not my responsibility, though: I voted for the other guy.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.