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 Obama, whose pledge to shut the facility at the U.S. naval base in
Cuba dates back to the start of his presidency in 2009, is seeking
to make good on his promise before he leaves office next January.
Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the administration
intended to meet Tuesday's deadline to present its detailed proposal
for closing the facility. There are still 91 prisoners detained
there.
"We understand the deadline is tomorrow and it's our intent to meet
it," Davis told reporters.
U.S. officials have said the plan would call for sending to their
homelands or third countries detainees who have been cleared for
transfer, now numbering 35, and bringing remaining prisoners,
possibly several dozen, to U.S. soil to be held in maximum-security
prisons. Congress has banned such transfers to the United States
since 2011.
Another option that will be cited in the administration’s blueprint
will be the possibility of sending some prisoners overseas for
prosecution and trial, one U.S. official said.
 The closure plan could also serve as a template for how to deal with
future terrorism suspects captured in the fight against the Islamic
State militant group.
However, the document will not name the alternative U.S. prisons
under consideration for housing detainees, U.S. officials said. The
administration wants to avoid fueling any political outcry over
specific sites during a U.S. presidential election year.
Still, Pentagon officials have already surveyed a federal prison in
Florence, Colorado, a military jail at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and
the Navy brig at Charleston, South Carolina.
An effort will also be made to speed up parole-style reviews to
determine whether more prisoners can be added to the group cleared
for release, officials said.
The plan will include costs for upgrading U.S. facilities and
housing the inmates there, according to a source familiar with the
matter. The White House last year rejected one Pentagon proposal as
too expensive, sending it back for revisions.
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Republicans and some Democrats in Congress largely oppose proposals
to move any of the prisoners to the United States.
Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte said on Monday the Obama
administration refused to "level with the American people regarding
the terrorist activities and affiliations of the detainees who
remain at Guantanamo."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest reiterated Obama's view of
Guantanamo as a terrorist "recruiting tool" and urged lawmakers to
look at the plan "with an open mind," although he expressed doubt
about whether they would do so.
The White House has left open the possibility that Obama might
resort to executive powers to close the facility.
The prison was opened in 2002 by former Republican President George
W. Bush to house foreign terrorism suspects rounded up after the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
The United States quickly drew criticism from human rights activists
and foreign governments over Guantanamo, where most prisoners have
been held for more than a decade without trial.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Peter Cooney,
Bernard Orr)
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