During today's Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing, CIA Director Leon Panetta responding to a question from Sen. Saxby Chambliss, told the Senate that were Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri captured, they'd be sent to Guantanamo Bay. It's not entirely clear that he was stating administration policy or giving the answer he thought would play best politically, since Director of National Intelligence James Clapper walked Panetta's statement back a moment later, saying the outcome would be a subject of "interagency discussion."
Panetta's remarks, though, are likely to fuel a great deal of speculation over whether or not the administration will be introducing new detainees into the facility, as Republicans have urged. Transferring new detainees to Guantanamo would obviously mean that Barack Obama's campaign promise to close the detention camp at Guantanamo was officially defunct. Even if they won't, the fact that Panetta suggested bin Laden or Zawahiri would be sent to Gitmo not only contradicts state administration policy, it begs the question of why other future high-value captures shouldn't be sent there.
The question of where bin Laden or Zawahiri will go is largely academic, since it seems unlikely they'll ever be captured alive. But the exchange will offer another opportunity for Republicans to argue that Gitmo should be kept open, particularly for the purpose of interrogating high-level detainees.
