Poll: Most Americans Say Keep Gitmo Open

(CBS)

In the wake of the Christmas Day terror attempt, President Obama recommitted to his promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Yet more than half of Americans think the U.S. should continue to keep the facility open, a new CBS News poll shows.

Fifty-five percent of Americans think the prison should be kept open, according to the poll, which was conducted from Jan. 6 – 10. Last November, by contrast, 50 percent of Americans thought the prison should remain open, and just 46 percent thought so in February 2009.

Just 32 percent of Americans think the facility ought to be closed and the prisoners there transferred somewhere else. That figure is down from 39 percent in November and 44 percent last February.

Three in four Republicans want Guantanamo kept open, while just a third of Democrats do.

After the attempted Christmas attack put new emphasis on al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Mr. Obama suspended the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, home to nearly half of the 198 terror suspect detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that detainees should not be released into a country with an al Qaeda presence. But she added that keeping the prison open serves as a recruiting tool for the terrorist group. The government is exploring transferring at least some of the detainees to a federal prison in Illinois.

While most Americans disagree with Mr. Obama about the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison, 57 percent nevertheless approve of the way the Obama administration responded to the attempted Christmas terror attack.

Fear of another terrorist attack has increased since that incident. Now, 26 percent think another attack on the United States within the next few months is very likely, up from 12 percent just before the latest incident.

Few Americans – just 19 percent -- think the U.S. intelligence agencies are doing all they could to monitor the actions of suspected terrorists. More than three in four say they could be doing more.

Mr. Obama's approval rating on handling terrorism has not changed much since he took office. Now, 52 percent approve of the job he is doing handling terrorism, and 35 percent disapprove.

The president's overall approval rating has hit an all-time low, though that mostly seems attributable to concerns about his handling of domestic issues like health care.

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CBS News Poll Database
Read the Complete Poll

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This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,216 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone January 6-10, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line 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.

[NowBeWithThat]

It only took a year for Pres. Obama (dizzy libs and young adults who voted for him) to figure out that closing Gitmo is frankly not cool, that repatriating terrorists to Yemen is like saving al Qaeda the trouble of locating its own recruits.

Mr. Obama ran his savvy election campaign on the promise of change - 10%+ unemployment, a staggering deficit, an escalating war in Afghanistan, and a possible new war in Yemen is definitely change.

Americans were in such a hurry to switch gears after eight years of the Bush Administration, we forgot that NOT everything GWB did was bad. Some of it was harsh and not PC but necessary for our national security, like keeping Gitmo open.

History will vindicate George W. Bush.

Time is exposing Barack Hussein Obama as a brilliant and arrogant political neophyte whose dream of a new world order is destroying this nation from the inside out.

[gunndee3]

I agree with you that not everything GWB did was bad. I think President Obama was elected based on media manipulation by liberals in the media, because on merit, we still have not seen his academic records to verify how brilliant he is based on transcripts and application reviews. GWB released his transcripts and test scores. Sarah Palin released hers. Ditto, McCain. Obama has released nothing. How can a free press look the other way on something as substantive as this? More importantly, why would Obama, who campaigned on transparency, not be transparent with the release of his perconal records.

[AOCGUY]

1,216 polled out of a population of over 300 million. That is the equivalent of roughly asking 4 people out of a population of 1 million. I don't see the polling numbers as statistically significant.

[hph2001]

No way should we close Gitmo! If Obama doesn't like the way it was run during the Bush administration, then replace the commanding officer there, but never let those prisoners set foot on the American homeland. Never!

[chamaatlast]

Yes, keep Gitmo opened. Have their trials there, then execute the ones found guilty. If their trials are held and they are jailed in the us. we wont be able to stpo them, Gitmo is already a max sec. prison.

[chamaatlast]

also from chamaatlast. They are prisoners of war. Keep them in prison till this war is over. After all they started this war, let them "enjoy" it.

[50BMS13]

Of course we should not close it. Obama, you made a mistake promising to close it. You can still do the right thing! KEEP IT OPEN and KEEP THE TRASH OFF OUR HOMELAND!

[NdubuezeC]

This is stupid. Enough with all this rubbish polls. Who are those that want that shame of a place kept open? Do we go around pounding others about human rights and we go behind and commit attrocities against other humans? That is hypocrisy and I think those that want Gitmo closed are the true representatives of what America is and ought to be.

[pdxdave]

Obama is out of touch, and dangerously wrong about the terrorist threat.

Their presence in the U.S. will only allow them to establish terrorist schools in the prisons here. If you think for one minute that Democrats and the ACLU won't file lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit, in order to get them more "rights" "privileges" and "freedoms" then you are delusional.

Moving them here is step 1 - empowering them to bring terror to the homeland is the goal of Democrats. They think the terrorists are the good guys and our soldiers are rapists and murderers.