Justices Tacitly Backed Use of Guantánamo, Bush Says

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: July 8, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 7 — In his most detailed comments to date on the Supreme Court's rejection of his decision to put detainees on trial before military commissions, President Bush said Friday that the court had tacitly approved his use of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

"It didn't say we couldn't have done — couldn't have made that decision, see?" Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Chicago. "They were silent on whether or not Guantánamo — whether or not we should have used Guantánamo. In other words, they accepted the use of Guantánamo, the decision I made."

Mr. Bush's remarks put a favorable spin on a ruling that has been widely interpreted as a rebuke of the administration's policies in the war on terror. The court, ruled broadly last week in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that military commissions were unauthorized by statute and violated international law.
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[If he still has the flacks who came up with that spin, when the lot of them have been impeached and he's been convicted of war crimes, maybe he'll brag he wasn't charged with genocide. But this should go without saying: " 'I am willing to abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court,' the president said."----Silva]