Sen. McCain: Ashton Carter Has Promised Plan to Shut Down Gitmo

Arizona Sen. John McCain said that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter made a promise to present a plan for closing the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"I talked to him this morning and he said a plan would be forthcoming," said McCain, who is chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee, The Hill is reporting.

McCain is behind a defense policy bill that would create a way for the Obama administration to close down the prison where terrorists captured on the battlefield are being held, but it would need to get congressional approval to do so.

The White House has said that it will veto the measure, if it makes it to the president's desk, calling it "unnecessary and overly restrictive."

The Arizona Republican told The Hill that he was invited over to the White House by President Barack Obama to discuss "the issue of the detainees," and he replied by saying he would come after he received a plan from the administration for closing down the prison.

Any proposal will likely struggle to make it through Congress, as Republicans are very divided on the issue.

Obama said in March that he wished he had shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay his first day in office.
 
The Washington Post reported in April that the Pentagon was working to move the detainees out of the prison before Congress had a chance to interfere with Obama's plan to shut it down.

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