WASHINGTON
A Pentagon plan to close the U.S.’s controversial military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is gaining traction in Congress, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday.
“I'm pleased that many members from both sides of the aisle in Congress have indicated their interest in and willingness to consider such a plan,” Carter told reporters.
While some detainees can be transferred to third countries, others will continue to need to be held in U.S. custody, Carter said.
President Barack Obama pledged to shutter the facility upon assuming office, but he has been dogged by legal and security hurdles.
Republicans have opposed Obama's unilateral transfer of detainees from the facility to other countries, claiming some might go on to join terror groups, and Congress has banned the transfer of detainees to the U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry appointed former Bill Clinton and George W. Bush aide Lee Wolosky to facilitate the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to other countries in June.
Defense officials have been assessing the Navy Brig in Charleston, South Carolina and Fort Leavenworth in Kansas as possible domestic sites for those who cannot be sent to a third nation. But Carter stressed that neither has been chosen, and additional sites will be considered in the coming weeks.
“The facility surveys will provide me, the rest of the president's national security team and Congress with some of the information needed to chart a responsible way forward and a plan so that we can close the detention facility at Guantanamo and this chapter in our history once and for all,” he said.
Congressional support for any prospective plan will be key as lawmakers will have to lift their ban on the transfer of inmates to the United States.
But the military prison should be shuttered before Obama leaves office, Carter said.
“Closing the detention facility at Guantanamo is not something, in my judgment, that we should leave to the next president, whether Republican or Democrat,” he said, noting that as long as it remains open, Guantanamo “will remain a rallying cry for jihadi propaganda”.
Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley strongly criticized Carter's remarks, saying on Twitter that "It is a slap in the face to the people of SC to put terrorists in our backyard."
Claims of physical, mental and psychological abuse of prisoners have been issued against the U.S. since the detention center opened.
Of the nearly 800 detainees taken to the prison, 116 remain at Guantanamo Bay, according to the Defense Department.
