I think it's important to define the phrase "close Gitmo."
I am guessing you mean the PRISON that Dumbya built there, yes? Or do you mean the entire base, with all its infrastructure? If the former, that's WAY easier than the latter--the latter could be on the BRAC table, but we'd probably want something in that neighborhood. Roosie Roads was closed several years back, and the facilities there were in quite good condition.
Found some links to add to the conversation:
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/07/obama-guantanamo-bay
Will Obama Close Guantánamo Bay Before He Leaves Office?
As a candidate, Barack Obama pledged to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, which critics argue is a continuous human-rights violation, the existence of which is a useful recruiting tool for terrorist organizations across the globe.
Now well into his second term, the president is racking up successes—his signature piece of legislation, Obamacare, survived a Supreme Court challenge; the U.S. restored full diplomatic ties with Cuba; the historic Iranian nuclear deal—but whether he will be able to close the U.S. naval base remains unclear.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that officials and concerned onlookers believe that Obama’s window for moving on Gitmo is rapidly closing. Obama appointed Ashton Carter as the secretary of defense in part because Chuck Hagel, his predecessor, was too slow to approve transfers from Guantánamo. Six months into his term, Carter has yet to approve a single transfer. (The process, as the Times notes, is complicated: Gitmo inmates are banned from being placed in U.S. prisons, and the defense secretary must notify Congress 30 days before the transfer occurs.)
Later on Wednesday, the White House rejected the pessimism of the Times report, and said that it is finalizing a plan to close the facility before Obama leaves office. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration’s plan would ensure that the facility was closed “safely and responsibly” and claimed that doing so is in the nation’s best interest.
Per the Times’s latest tally, 52 prisoners have been recommended for release already. Sixty-four have not been recommended for release, 10 of whom have been charged or convicted. Of the 64 who are not currently recommended for release, the remaining 54 have not been charged with committing a specific crime.
Obama administration in 'final stages' of planning Gitmo closing
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/22/politics/guantanamo-bay-closing-plans-obama-earnest/
(CNN)The Obama administration is in the "final stages of drafting a plan to safely and responsibly" close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday.
"That has been something that our national security officials have been working on for quite some time," Earnest said.
Earnest was responding to a question about a story in The New York Times that says the effort to close the prison, one of the first promises the president made back in 2009 upon taking office, was faltering and "collapsing again."
Any plan would have to be approved by Congress, which has placed significant obstacles in the way of transferring detainees out of the prison.
Currently a ban exists on moving detainees into the United States, a significant impediment to emptying the prison of the 116 alleged terrorists currently housed there....
Aaaaaaaand Judy Miller's NYT--count on them to pee in the punch:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/us/politics/obamas-plan-for-guantanamo-is-seen-faltering.html?_r=0
Obama’s Plan for Guantánamo Is Seen Faltering
....The administration’s fitful effort to shut down the prison is collapsing again. Ashton B. Carter, in his first six months as defense secretary, has yet to make a decision on any newly proposed deals to transfer individual detainees. His delay, which echoes a pattern last year by his predecessor, Chuck Hagel, is generating mounting concern in the White House and State Department, officials say.
Last week, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, convened a cabinet-level “principals committee” meeting on how to close the prison before the president leaves office in 18 months. At that meeting, Mr. Carter was presented with an unsigned National Security Council memo stating that he would have 30 days to make decisions on newly proposed transfers, according to several officials familiar with the internal deliberations.
But the meeting ended inconclusively. Mr. Carter did not commit to making a decision on pending transfer proposals by a particular date.....The approval process is complicated by statutes restricting the transfer of detainees. They ban bringing detainees to a prison inside the United States and require the defense secretary to notify Congress, 30 days before any transfer, that its risks have been substantially mitigated.
The law effectively vests final power in the defense secretary and makes him personally accountable if something goes wrong.
“The chances of getting it done on Obama’s watch are getting increasingly slim,” said Robert M. Chesney, a University of Texas law professor who worked on detainee policy for the administration in 2009.
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