Lacking Clear Solution, Obama Struggles to Close Gitmo

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  There is less than six months left until President Obama's self-imposed deadline for closing Guantanamo, but more than 200 men remain in detention. New details emerge almost daily about plans for the prisoners, including transfer to the U.S. mainland, return to their home countries, or relocation to a third country.

  Here to walk us through all the options on the table is Ari Shapiro. He's been covering Guantanamo for National Public Radio.

  Ari, thank you for being back with us again…

• ARI SHAPIRO, National Public Radio:

  Thank you for having me.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  … on this subject. So with all the stories floating around out there, what's for real? What do we make of all this?

• ARI SHAPIRO:

  Well, what's for real is that the administration is considering several different options and probably will end up using a combination of things.

  For example, over the weekend, we heard that the administration was thinking about opening a prison courthouse complex either in Kansas or in Michigan. So I called an administration official and I said, "Is this real?" And they said, "Well, it's really something we're considering."

  And I said, "Well, is it one of three options or one of 300 options?" And they said, "It's something we're considering."

  So I think the administration itself doesn't know yet exactly what's going to happen with all of these people. There's a detention task force that has been working for six months on trying to get these answers. A couple weeks ago, they asked for another six-month extension.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Now, does this intriguing idea of a combination courtroom and prison facility, do they tell you enough to understand how it would work?