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Gates asks Washington to find a way to close Gitmo

The defense secretary says the challenge is to keep dangerous detainees behind bars.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 30, 2007

WASHINGTON - Congress and the Bush administration should work together to allow the United States to permanently imprison some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere so the military facility in Cuba can be closed, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

Gates said the challenge is figuring out what to do with hard-core detainees who have "made very clear they will come back and attack this country."

He said it may require a new law to "address the concerns about some of these people who really need to be incarcerated forever, but that doesn't get them involved in a judicial system where there is the potential of them being released," Gates told the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee.

Lawmakers said Thursday that the Guantanamo facility hurts U.S. credibility with its allies. They asked that Gates give more thought to how it could be closed and detainees moved to a military prison.

"I hope that we can work to find some way to correct this problem, because as you say, it is a stain on our reputation and we can't afford it," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.

Of the 385 detainees at Guantanamo, fewer than 100 would be considered hard core, Gates said. He said he assumes there would be room in the military prison system for them.

But he said he did not know if using the military brigs would allow the United States to keep the detainees over the long term.

He noted that the United States is struggling to return several hundred of the detainees to their home countries because those nations do not want them.

[Last modified March 30, 2007, 01:25:49]