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Opinion

In Summary

In January 2002, four months after the 9/11 attack in New York, a team led by Pierre-Richard Prosper, the State Department's ambassador at large for war crimes, met at the 7th floor conference room at the State Department.

They spread out a big map of the world on the table. Their task was to find a place or country where America could detain about 300 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters captured in Afghanistan.

After suggesting a number of countries, someone said: "What about Guantanamo?"�

This search was informed by a raging debate going on within the Bush administration on the establishment of a military commission and the powers of the president following the terrorism...