Obama Plans to Close Guantanamo Bay
CBS News reported that President-elect Obama plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that his administrators are considering other U.S. prisons to move the detainees to.
According to reports by MSNBC, the President-elect is also considering constructing a new system which would allow the detainees to be tried in the U.S. civil courts as opposed to military tribunals.
Several facilities are being considered as possible locations for new detainee prisons, including the Navy base at Charleston, S.C., and Camp Pendleton, Calif., according to CBS News.
Current Bush administrators have criticized the plan and expressed concern over the feasibility of transfering the nearly 250 detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, according to MSNBC.
"It would be a stunning disappointment if one of the new administration's first priorities is to give foreign terror suspects captured on the battlefield the same legal rights and protections as American citizens accused of crimes," Senate Judiciary Committee member John Cornyn told MSNBC.