Gates Prepares Plan to Close Gitmo Should Obama Ask

By: Michelle Levi
Topics: Domestic Issues

(CBS)

CBS News' Kimberley Dozier reports that Defense Secretary Gates, who will keep his post in the Obama administration, ordered a review be prepared on how to close Guantanamo Bay should the President-elect request one.

"If this is one of the president elect's first orders of business, the Secretary wants to be ready to assist," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters Thursday. Gates said "whatever we have done, let's update it, improve it, get it ready," Morrell added.

Secretary Gates has stated in previous briefings that one of the requirements of closing the detention center would be constructing legislation to build a statutory framework to control the prison population, Dozier reports.

8 Comments Have Your Say
Email Story Send to a Friend
Share This Tell Your Friends
Tweet This Tweet This
More Share It

Add a Comment


by runningralph December 19, 2008 12:50 PM EST: Why close Guantanamo? The US has been running the base over a hundred years. What advantage is there in closing it?; Reply to this comment


by misha128-2009 December 19, 2008 10:01 AM EST: Perhaps Rowdy should be asking the the Bush Administration what to do with prisoners they did not wisely leave in the countries where they were detained. Then there would be no issue with the inability to deport then now. Because some incompetent and arrogant administration (Bush''s) would not have provided them LEGAL entry to the United States. I guess this was the "bring them here so we do not have to fight them there" policy of the Bush Administration.; Reply to this comment


by downtowner97 December 19, 2008 1:38 AM EST: Oh Rowdy, the lunatic religious right wing minority will always have a voice as long as you can type. I''m glad you''ve all fought so hard to point out the absurdity of paranoia, blind faith and intolerance. You can always be proud that your hard work got Obama elected.; Reply to this comment


by ioweign December 18, 2008 11:57 PM EST: Even those ignorant and ungrateful people with no thought or care about the fact that others laid down their lives for all of us. Would many of the screaming ''blame the war criminal Republicans'' blatherers be willing to sacrifice themselves for others and for a noble ideal?

Posted by sunnygirl9 at 07:15 PM : Dec 18, 2008

Bush - AWOL
Cheney - 5 deferments because he had better things to do

And all that fraudulent intel they manufactured to suck the American public into their "Choice Conflict in Iraq"...; Reply to this comment


by sunnygirl9-2009 December 18, 2008 10:15 PM EST: I must add one more thing to my post. Visit the United States military cemetaries here or in Europe or other parts of the world. There you will see the headstones of countless thousands who came before us, and were willing to die to preserve ideals that they cherished, so that those who came much later could live free. Even those ignorant and ungrateful people with no thought or care about the fact that others laid down their lives for all of us. Would many of the screaming ''''blame the war criminal Republicans'''' blatherers be willing to sacrifice themselves for others and for a noble ideal?; Reply to this comment


by sunnygirl9-2009 December 18, 2008 10:08 PM EST: Who are the war criminals? People who planned,murdered and celebrated the carnage of thousands of law-abiding citizens of this country on 9/11, and in other places across the world, or an American President, Congress and others who tried their best to stop terrorism, even while making serious mistakes during the course of the war? Do people blame FDR and Eisenhower and Patton for the numerous errors of judgement and tragic deaths that occured during their watch in WW2, as they tried their best to stop the terrorists of their day from destroying civilization? People who comment here should try to get a little perspective from reading some history, before making idiotic denouncements that show no knowledge of the world, no matter how one feels about the Iraq war. Its embarrassing that people cannot think critically, and clearly have never experienced life in other places that are not free and democratic. Why do you think much of the world tries to emmigrate here? Because we are an evil empire trying to take over the world? No, because we are the most successful and free society that has yet existed, with flaws, of course, but free and generous and with no interest in conquoring or empire-building. We are quite remarkable in that respect.; Reply to this comment


by slinginrich December 18, 2008 8:28 PM EST: Obama will leave GITMO open long enough to imprison Shrub, Darth, and their Slimy War Criminal Pals, until the World Court can convene a Tribunal in the Hague.
He can then close it, as the Hangings can take place over there.; Reply to this comment


by lovegetpeace December 18, 2008 7:35 PM EST: How are we going to take all Americans to Gitmo because they buy the Narcotic OPIUM from Afghanistan which finances the Taliban and Al-Qaeda?; Reply to this comment