U.S. weighs plan for closing Guantanamo: NY Times

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bush administration officials are weighing a plan that would grant detainees at Guantanamo Bay greater rights, as part of an effort to close the facility and possibly move some of the detainees to U.S. locations, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.

Citing U.S. officials involved in the discussions, the Times said the widely discussed proposals for revamping procedures that determine whether inmates are properly held included granting detainees legal representation at hearings.

Giving federal judges, rather than military officers, authority to decide whether suspects are held is also under discussion, the report said.

Officials contend that moving detainees to U.S. territory would have to include enhanced protections, the Times said.

If detainees were relocated, "there is a recognition that for policy reasons you would need even more robust procedures than those currently at Guantanamo," the newspaper cited a senior official involved as saying.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

Officials said the current discussions about ways of closing Guantanamo had picked up steam in recent weeks as Defense Secretary Robert Gates directed advisers to develop a proposal to accomplish that.

Some officials contend that granting detainees greater rights could help the administration strategically, by undercutting a case brought by Guantanamo suspects before the U.S. Supreme Court that could win them greater power to challenge their detentions, the Times said.

Lawyers inside and outside the government said a detailed administration proposal to expand detainees' legal protections could influence the justices and lead them to conclude they need not rule on the case, Boumediene v. Bush.