Obama: No Gitmo Closure Anytime Soon

Barack Obama has said repeatedly that he wants to shutter the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that holds accused terrorists. But aides cautioned Monday that the president-elect isn’t close to reaching a decision on how to do it.

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The Associated Press reported advisers to Obama were crafting a plan that would send accused terrorists to the U.S. and try some of them in a new, specially tailored court system rather than the military tribunals currently in use.

But Denis McDonough, a foreign policy adviser to Obama, said the nascent administration would wait until its national security and legal teams are in place before determining how to proceed.

“President-elect Obama said throughout his campaign that the legal framework at Guantanamo has failed to successfully and swiftly prosecute terrorists, and he shares the broad bipartisan belief that Guantanamo should be closed,” McDonough said in a statement. “There is absolutely no truth to reports that a decision has been made about how and where to try the detainees, and there is no process in place to make that decision until his national security and legal teams are assemble. More