Obama to make statement on Guantanamo amid plan to close prison

[February 23, 2016]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will deliver a statement on Guantanamo on Tuesday, the White House said, as his administration prepared to present U.S. lawmakers with his plan to shutter the controversial military prison.

Obama, who is scheduled to speak at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT), had pledged to close the facility at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since he took office in 2009.

On Monday, the Pentagon said it expected to meet Tuesday's deadline to submit Obama's plan to Congress as the president seeks to make good on his plan before his term ends in January.

U.S. officials have said the plan will call for sending detainees who have been cleared for transfer to their homelands or third countries and bringing remaining prisoners to U.S. soil to be held in maximum-security prisons.

Congress has banned such transfers to the United States since 2011.

The plan will also cite the possibility of sending some prisoners overseas for prosecution and trial, according to one U.S. official.

However, the White House 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.

(Reporting by Eric Walsh, Susan Heavey, Yeganeh Torbati, Matt Spetalnick and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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