Joint Chiefs chair: Gitmo is a "psychological scar" on U.S.

WASHINGTON - Count the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman among those who believe it's in the national interest to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

Gen. Martin Dempsey says the facility at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba "does create a psychological scar on our national values. Whether it should or not, it does."

The U.S. has transferred of a number of detainees recently as President Barack Obama tries to make progress toward his goal of closing Guantanamo.

The prison population now is 127.

Dempsey says there are "dozens" who still must be detained.

He tells "Fox News Sunday" that's a policy decision for elected officials - what to do if these detainees shouldn't be released and Congress doesn't allow them to be brought to the United States.

In early December, six Guantanamo Bay detainees were transferred to custody in Uruguay, the largest single transfer of detainees out of the prison since President Obama pledged to close down the prison camp after he took office in 2009. It is also the first time that a South American country has agreed to resettle Guantanamo detainees.

A few weeks later, the Pentagon announced that four Afghans from Guantanamo Bay had been returned to their home country in what U.S. officials are citing as a sign of their confidence in new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Choosing where to resettle detainees cleared for release has been tasked to a small team of lawyers and diplomats at the U.S. State Department who have spent years courting, cajoling and convincing other countries to accept these detainees. That job is particularly difficult because the Obama administration is asking other governments to do what it cannot. Congress has prohibited the transfer of any Gitmo detainees to U.S. soil even if they have never been charged.