White House Delays Meeting on Closing Detainee Site Bush Administration Close to Shutting Down Guant

Jun 22, 07:36 AM

Current Headlines: By MATTHEW LEE

By Matthew Lee

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

Senior administration officials said Thursday that a consensus is building for a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to Defense Department facilities, where they could face trial.

President Bush's national security and legal advisers had been scheduled to discuss the move today, the officials said, but after news of it broke, the White House said the meeting would not take place today and that no decision on Guantanamo 's status is imminent.

Three senior administration officials spoke about the discussions on condition of anonymity because they were involved in internal deliberations.

Previous plans to close Guantanamo ran into resistance from Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. But officials said the new suggestion is gaining momentum with at least tacit support from the State and Homeland Security departments, the Pentagon and the Intelligence directorate.

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