Decision to Move Detainees Resolved Two-Year Debate Among Bush Advisers

U.S. Navy personnel keep guard in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the 14 high-level detainees arrived on Labor Day. (Pool Photo)

Rice had had a series of conversations with Bush on the detainee issue, but at that National Security Council meeting she made her final pitch for a change in policy. In front of her colleagues, according to several who attended, she said that it was important for the United States to bring the issue to closure, both on foreign policy grounds and moral grounds. She noted that the secret sites were having a corrosive effect on the nation's ability to win cooperation on a range of intelligence issues. Rice urged the president to resolve the issue rather than hand it off to his successor.

The president agreed.

"This is a paradigm shift for the administration," said one senior official who was involved.

The core of Rice's argument appeared in the penultimate paragraph of the president's speech.

"America is a nation of law," Bush said, adding that he had heard the concerns of other world leaders about the administration's detention policies. "I'll continue to work with the international community to construct a common foundation to defend our nations and protect our freedoms."

Other advisers, including Cheney, who had essentially lost out on a program he had fought to preserve, were rewarded in the speech, namely with the president's assurance, if only in theory, that the black sites program could be used again.

"It's true the program could continue, but it will never occur in the same manner that it operated before," said one influential official.

Staff writers Charles Lane, Michael Abramowitz and Dan Eggen and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.