White House close to shutting Guantanamo site

qpicanto SG

short news June 21, 2007

WASHINGTON The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

Senior administration officials said Thursday a consensus is building for a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where they could face trial.

Pressure to close Guantanamo has been building since a Supreme Court decision last year that found illegal a previous system for prosecuting enemy combatants. Recent rulings by military judges threw out charges against two suspects under a new tribunal scheme.

qpicanto SG

Nation

White House Denies Talk of Closing Guantanamo

NPR.org, June 22, 2007 · The Bush administration was insisting Friday that there was no imminent decision on closing the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainee center despite reports that a plan was being reviewed to shutter the facility used to hold alleged terrorists.

But senior officials have told The Associated Press that consensus was building for a plan to shut Guantanamo and send its inmates to one or more military prisons in America, including the top-security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

According to the AP, a meeting of top officials on Guantanamo was planned for Friday but was called off when word leaked.

"It's no longer on the schedule for tomorrow," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "Senior officials have met on the issue in the past, and I expect they will meet on the issue in the future."