Powell: Close Gitmo

He may not have the support of the Senate, but President Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo Bay gained support on Sunday from a current and a former military leader. Bush-era secretary of state Colin Powell spoke out on CBS's Face the Nation: “I felt Guantanamo should be closed for the past six years, and I lobbied and presented reasons to President Bush.” Powell's protestation marks a sharp split from fellow Bushie and former vice president Dick Cheney, who has been blitzing the media in support of Bush’s treatment of detainees. In fact, Powell claimed even President Bush wanted Guantanamo to go away: “President Bush stated repeatedly to international audiences and to the country that he wanted to close Guantanamo. The problem he had was he couldn’t get all the pieces together… it is a complex problem.” Meanwhile, on ABC's This Week, Admiral Michael Mullen, the current head of the joint chiefs, denounced Guantanamo as “a recruiting symbol for those extremists and jihadists who would fight us.”