Detainee Dilemma

Senior Pentagon officials admitted today that they don't know where they would hold terrorists caught outside of battle areas in light of President Obama's plan to close Guantanamo.

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this morning, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the detainment of a high-value target would be an unknown location.

“I think the honest answer to that question is we don't know,” Gates told Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). “If we capture them outside of -- outside of the areas where we are at war and are not covered by the existing authorizations, war authorizations, one possibility is to -- for such a person to be put in the custody of their home government. Another possibility is that we bring them to the United States. After all, we've brought a variety of terrorists to the United States and put them on trial in Article III courts here over the years. But it will be a challenge.”

Gates noted that the prospects for closing the detention base at Guantanamo were “very, very low” based on the fact that so many in Congress were against it.

Later in the hearing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen also stated that DOD does not know what to do about terrorists caught outside of war zones, much to the chagrin of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

“This is a big deal to me,” Graham said. “We're in a war, and capturing people is part of intelligence gathering. It's an essential component of this war. Do you agree with that, Adm. Mullen?”

Mullen said he did.

Graham went on to note that it's “better to capture someone than it is to kill them, in a lot of cases” -- a statement that Mullen also acknowledged as accurate.

“It is hard to capture someone if you don't have a jail to put them,” Graham said. “I hope, Mr. Chairman, that some time this year Republicans and Democrats can have a breakthrough on this issue to help our men and women fighting this war, because it is a very spot to put the special -- a tough spot to put the special operators in. And our CIA -- our CIA doesn't interrogate terrorist suspects any longer. And these are things we need to talk about and get an answer to.”