Poll: Support For Closing Guantanamo Grows

(CBS)

More Americans now support closing the military prison facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba than support keeping the facilities open, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.

Forty-eight percent of Americans want the facilities closed, while slightly fewer – 40 percent – believe they should be kept open.

In April, by contrast, more Americans supported keeping the prison open (47 percent) than supported closing it (40 percent).

Eight in ten of those who support closing Guantanamo still believe it should be closed even if that means bringing detainees to prisons in the United States.

A substantial percentage of Americans remain scared that closing Guantanamo will make America less safe, however.

Thirty-one percent say closing the prison will make the nation less safe, though that is down from 36 percent in February. Eight percent say the closure will make the United States safer, while 50 percent say it will make no difference.

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Read The Complete Poll (PDF)

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Republicans are more likely than Democrats or independents to say closing Guantanamo would endanger the country.

Four in five Americans are worried about what might happen following the release of Guantanamo detainees to another country.

Forty-one percent are "very concerned" that detainees released abroad will attack the United States in the future, and an additional 39 percent are "somewhat concerned." Just 20 percent are not very or not at all concerned.

In addition, about half are "very" or "somewhat" concerned that former detainees will be tortured or killed abroad.

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Though they are split on closing Guantanamo, a clear majority of Americans (68 percent) believe that the detainees held there should either be charged or released. Only 24 percent say they should be held without being charged for as long as the U.S. deems it necessary. President Obama has said a small number of detainees will be held indefinitely.

Watch more
CBSNews.com editor-in-chief Dan Farber speaks with Sarah Dutton, the director of surveys for CBS News, about the latest New York Times/CBS News poll on Pres. Obama and Sonia Sotomayor:

Watch CBS Videos Online

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This poll was conducted among a random sample of 895 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone June 12-16, 2009. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

[antoniof123]

Bush is against closing down Gitmo and he is against health care reform.

We must be on the right track that man is always wrong no matter what.

[TheMasses0003]

These are terrorists and need to be treated as such
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Sounds like a good case for a little waterboarding fun.

[mattcat25]

If they were to completely close Bush's ClubGitmo then, what would Richard Cheney have to do?

Republicans seem to be in love with War, Death, and TORTURE!!

[antoniof123]

Purification and torture, where have I heard that before?

[Mssassie]

Are you kidding me??? Keep it open and don't send them here. We don't want them. Why, as the U.S. don't we just say, come on in, terrorize us, blow us up, use whatever you want because all we will do is slap you on the wrist and say bad bad and then lock you in some prison so you can watch cbs news or cnn on cable, work out with the best workout equipment I cannot afford and have 3 a day meals. Give me a break. These are terrorists and need to be treated as such

[jmikey54]

I don't know what people think the detainees will do if they are transferred to American Maximum security prisons. They are not going anywhere. As far as the detainees who have been acquitted they are not guilty of any criminal activity. We don't have any reason to believe they will suddenly turn into criminals when they are released, wherever that is. Guantanamo is a political black eye in the world of public opinion. We need to close it up and end this dark period in our history.

[kovith6]

they didn't poll me, but I'm one of the Support for Closing. It's long overdue!!!

[babooph]

It takes very powerful US propaganda to sell 40% of voters on keeping a concentration camp of accused & openly tortured world citizens active.The problem has to go back to the failed school system.