CBS poll: Americans want to keep Gitmo open

According to a CBS News poll released last night, a majority of Americans want the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility to remain open. Meanwhile the Democrats, led by President Obama, Senator Dick Durbin, and Governor Pat Quinn, want the enemy combatants incarcerated there transferred to Thomson, Illinois.

In the wake of the Christmas Day terror attempt, President Obama recommitted to his promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Yet more than half of Americans think the U.S. should continue to keep the facility open, a new CBS News poll shows.

Fifty-five percent of Americans think the prison should be kept open, according to the poll, which was conducted from Jan. 6 – 10. Last November, by contrast, 50 percent of Americans thought the prison should remain open, and just 46 percent thought so in February 2009.

Just 32 percent of Americans think the facility ought to be closed and the prisoners there transferred somewhere else. That figure is down from 39 percent in November and 44 percent last February.

Three in four Republicans want Guantanamo kept open, while just a third of Democrats do.

Technorati tags: Illinois Gitmo guantanamo War on Terror illinois politics prisons Durbin Patrick Quinn pat quinn Barack Obama Obama