WASHINGTON -- The White House postponed a meeting of the administration's top senior foreign and defense policy officials scheduled for today to debate the future of the terrorism detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but officials said the issue of whether to close the facility is likely to be discussed again.
The Associated Press had reported earlier that the administration is nearing a decision to close the facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere.
Senior administration officials said yesterday that a consensus is building for a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where they could face trial.
The high-level meeting was scheduled to help senior leaders decide whether the Guantanamo prison could be closed and its detainees moved to prisons in the U.S. without risking their release by the new courts.
After legal defeats and growing criticism at home and abroad, administration officials have begun reconsidering the future of Guantanamo and U.S. detainee policies.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has urged that it be closed and former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell called last week for its shutdown.
But the White House denied last night that a decision was at hand, noting that several important issues - including the repatriation of detainees who have been marked for release and the setting up of new war crimes tribunals - have yet to be addressed.
"No decisions on the future of Guantanamo Bay are imminent," said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.
He added that today's meeting "is no longer on the schedule" but that senior officials are expected to take up the issue again.
Three senior administration officials spoke about the discussions on condition of anonymity because they were internal deliberations, the Associated Press said.
Expected to consult soon, according to the officials, were Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gates, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace.
Internal talks
The administration's internal debates come after a series of legal setbacks to its detention policies, and to plans for war crimes trials for the first of approximately 380 prisoners being held on the Cuban naval base.
