So Obama is going to order Gitmo closed. I'll believe it when it happens. But why does no one ever ask him about the secret CIA prisons around the globe? We have over 20,000 people being held in these secret prisons, that have never been charged with a crime. What will Obama do about those prisoners? Prisons we know torture is being committed in. Prisons that the CIA refuses to allow the Red Cross in to inspect. When will Obama be asked that question, is what I want to know.

...is not going to be an overnight job.

And for God's sake, these freak'n republicans who have just about ruined the country's economy, military and diplomatic standing in the world need the shut the hell up and let the people who know what their doing get to work.

I agree that we can't these sites. The 20K figure seems high though. I imagine Obama's biggest problem at this point is declaring to close something that officially is not supposed to exist. Once in office, all bets are off on this one though.

Who would have thought that it would be hard to figure out what to do with 250 men who, even if they didn't hate America in the first place, certainly do now. Moving those men to a location where they have access to legal council and fall under SOME law will be an improvement, but is it even safe to let them go after all this time? And what do we tell them if we do let them go. "Sorry about holding you for all those years without any charges, our mistake".

No matter what Obama does about this it's gonna be a mess.

For free. Give them a free home, an annual stipend.

Let's just hope he doesn't change his mind on this again. Close it down. In week one.

While I agree with your sentiment, I can't imagine letting any of these guys stay in the US. Nor can I imagine any of them wanting to be here except possibly to get revenge for half a decade of false imprisonment. I expect that the government will end up paying them, either volentarily of because of a law suit, but it just isn't safe to spend 6 years making someopne hate you and them moving them in next door.

Seems like keeping them in the US is the only option. That they hate us now? So what. Lots of Americans hate us now.

it would be possible to "close Gitmo" and do virtually nothing to improve the lot of detainees ... and it's even possible -- by "extraditing" them to coutries with even WORSE human rights protections -- to worsen their lives ... but not by enough that closing Gitmo is some "better of two evils"

Moving the prisoners to something like a supermax prison, probably federal, on American soil would be a start in the right direction ... increasing access to legal representation and other resources, families, Red Cross and whatever "local" juridictional protections.

But, again, "closing Gitmo" will almost certainly not mean freedom for these men ... many of whom are guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, having local enemies, and the "wrong friends" ...

Freedom for John Walker Lindh too, please. His "conviction" was based on a guilty plea bargain in the face of "confession" obtained by torture. He was never there for "political" reasons. Irrc, he never fired a shot and, a stranger in a strange land under attack, he was a hostage rather than a free agent.

Can we all agree that the allure of sending prisones to Gitmo in the first place was that it is technically lawless, a private Presidential anarchic fiefdom, unreachable by the U.S. Constitution, Congressional oversight, God, or the World Court? Any U.S. President could securely practice witchcraft, infanticide, bondage, torture, or inject heroin into Anne Coulter's corpse without a single glance over his shoulder. This is not a healthy power to have. I suggest that we can do without our own private Somalia and should abandon it, tearing down the fences and letting any Cubans move in who want to. 20 years from now, a future President and Congress will pass legislation making the de facto handover de jure out of sheer embarrassment.

So, perhaps we can move them into your neighborhood, hmm? Perhaps you'd care to donate a room for the cause, since you seem so eager to do right by them?

Moving the prisoners to something like a supermax prison, probably federal, on American soil would be a start in the right direction ..

sure, there isn't evidence to try them, so let's put them in a supermax prison until we can think of a way to hold them indefinitely without charges. Ah'm proud to be an american.....