Possible Indefinite Detention Order Riles Critics

The political battle over the fate of the detainees at Gunatanamo Bay just got more contentious.

The Obama administration is considering an executive order to indefinitely imprison a small number of Guantanamo Bay detainees, a move that would be in line with Bush administration policy but already has drawn scorn from civil liberties groups.

“This is not change — this is more of the same,” Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in response to reports that surfaced Friday of the possible executive order. “If President Obama issues an executive order authorizing indefinite detention, he’ll be repeating the same mistakes of George Bush, and his policies will be destined to fail as were his predecessor’s.”

He added, “Throwing people into prison without charge, conviction or providing them with a trial is about as un-American as you can get.”

But former top Bush adviser Karl Rove said the news should be welcomed.

“We are, after all, in a war — not an overseas contingency operations as some in the administration have suggested is the new title for it,” he told FOX News. “And in a war, you take the people you sweep up on the battlefield and you hold them until the war is over or until they no longer represent a threat.”

The White House is weighing the move out of concern that Congress might otherwise stymie its plans to quickly close the naval prison in Cuba.

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