47% Say U.S. Safer Today Because of Guantanamo Prison
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Most voters still oppose closing the Guantanamo terrorist prison camp and moving some of those inmates to a U.S. facility. Nearly half think the United States is safer because suspected terrorists have been imprisoned there.
Democrats in Congress are again pushing legislation to close the Guantanamo facility, but a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 27% of Likely U.S. Voters think the prison for suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba should be closed. That’s up slightly from 23% in April of last year but still down dramatically from the 44% who favored closure in January 2009 when President Obama first announced his plan to do so.
Fifty-four percent (54%) disagree and say the Guantanamo prison should not be closed, consistent with most surveys for several years. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 23-24, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.