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Some Guantanamo inmates would go to US under new plan, Obama aide says

By REUTERS

JULY 27, 2015 02:25

A plan being drafted for closing the Guantanamo military jail will call for the transfer to US prisons of possibly dozens of inmates deemed too dangerous to release, President Barack Obama's counter terrorism adviser said, setting up a fight with congressional opponents.

Outlining the White House proposal that will soon be sent to Congress, Lisa Monaco, one of Obama's top national security aides, told the Aspen Security Conference on Saturday that the United States would step up the transfers of 52 detainees cleared for resettlement in other countries.

The plan calls for the rest of the inmates at the US naval base in Cuba to be brought to the United States to "Supermax" or military prisons for trials or continued military detention, Monaco said. Some 116 detainees remain at Guantanamo, many held more than a decade without charge or trial.

Obama's new push to meet his longstanding pledge to shut the internationally condemned prison is sure to face strong resistance from Republicans who control Congress. Legislation currently bans the transfer of detainees to the US mainland.

"Why hand over this albatross to the president's successor?" Monaco said at the conference in Colorado. Obama has 18 months left in office.

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