Gates wants Gitmo dialogue with Congress

WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates would like to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center but the country would need a way to hold long-term prisoners.

"I came to this position believing that Guantanamo should be closed," Gates told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. "My own view is that because of things that happened earlier at Guantanamo, there is a taint about it."

He also told the committee he had recommended moving the suspected terrorist trials to the United States.

"I felt that no matter how transparent, no matter how open the trials, if they took place at Guantanamo, in the international community they would lack credibility," he said.

Gates said there are many prisoners at Guantanamo the U.S. military would like to release back to their home countries but those governments won't take them.

"I know that there are some people down there that if we release them have made very clear that they will come back and attack this country. And so, how we deal with that over the long term, frankly, I think is a challenge that rests before both the Congress and the executive branch," he said.

Gates said he believes there is capacity in U.S. military jails in the United States to hold the prisoners -- under 100 of whom are judged by the military to be truly dangerous -- but he is concerned U.S. laws as they stand would allow some of them to be released.

"It may be that it requires some kind of a statutory approach to deal with it in terms of how do you keep these people ... for the long term," Gates said. "It's an area where, frankly, I think there needs to be some dialogue between the Congress (and the administration) -- is there a way statutorily to address the concerns about some of these people who really need to be incarcerated forever, but that doesn't get them involved in a judicial system where ... there is the potential of them being released, frankly," Gates said.