2/17/2011

” ‘I think we are in the position, frankly, the prospects for closing Guantanamo, the best I can tell, are very, very low given very broad opposition to doing that here in the Congress,’ [Secretary of Defense] Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee [on February 17, 2011]. Asked what the United States would do about holding so-called high-value targets, which presumably would include Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders, Gates responded, ‘I think the honest answer to that is, we don’t know. If we capture them outside the area where we are at war and are not covered by the existing war authorizations, one possibility is for a person to be in the custody of their home government,’ Gates said. ‘Another possibility is that we bring them to the United States.’ ”

 – Charley Keyes, “Gates: Prospects for Closing Guantanamo ‘Very, Very Low,'” CNN, Feb. 17, 2011