Free Republic

Two days before I left Washington in early February for my first tour inside Guantánamo's prison complex, an email arrived. "Media representatives must agree to and sign, initialing each page, Media Ground Rules," it read, "prior to being allowed access to JTF-GTMO's area of operations." Wait, I thought — hadn't I already signed media ground rules for reporting at Guantánamo? I'd been going there for the past three years and a 13-page document I had signed and turned over to military authorities at the base had covered me each time. It was an access agreement that the Pentagon had worked...

It was one year ago today. Remember President Obama's first full day in office: "The record is clear: Rather than keep us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security," Obama said during an address on national security at the National Archives in Washington. "It is a rallying cry for our enemies. It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that operates in scores of countries. By any measure, the costs of keeping it open far exceed the complications involved in closing it." At the time the President was roundly...