Squaring the Guantanamo circle

One of Obama's first priorities will be to shut down the detention centers at Guantanamo. What he will do with all those prisoners is a legal riddle:

"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult."

In my mind there is no way a liberal empire can survive for too long, without sacrificing either its liberal or its imperial credentials.