The ruling, Boumediene v. Bush, undercut a core rationale for keeping the prison off U.S. soil, raising expectations that Bush might at last move to close it, a prospect he first raised in June 2006, when he said, "I'd like to close Guantanamo, but I also recognize that we're holding some people that are darn dangerous, and that we better have a plan to deal with them in our courts."
In August 2007, Bush said that "it should be a goal of the nation to shut down Guantanamo ... but it is not as easy a subject as some may think on the surface."
Bush has harshly criticized the ruling, including at least twice in fundraising speeches for Republicans. When he met with his senior security advisers, no options for closing the prison were on the agenda, the administration officials said.
Cheney and his chief of staff, David S. Addington, have made it clear in the internal discussions this year that keeping Guantanamo open under a new president would validate the administration's decisions dealing with terrorists, the officials said.
Closing Guantanamo would most likely mean abandoning prosecutions against some detainees and risking the release of others who still pose a threat to the United States and its allies.
An administration official who favors closing the prison suggested that the next president might reconsider after having access to the classified evidence that the Bush administration believes justifies the indefinite detention of dozens of detainees.
"The new president will gnash his teeth and beat his head against the wall when he realizes how complicated it is to close Guantanamo," the official said.
