Obama To Close GTMO On… Day One?

I could not be more confused now. Yesterday President-elect Barack Obama says it’s “more difficult than I think a lot of people realize” to close Guantanamo Bay. Today the Center for Constitutional Rights gently refutes him. And now — and I’m not saying the two things are necessarily related — Lara Jakes Jordan of the AP reports:

Advisers to President-elect Barack Obama say one of his first duties in office will be to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

That executive order is expected during Obama’s first week on the job — and possibly on his first day, according to two transition team advisers. Both spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Maybe the two statements aren’t so incompatible. You can order the military to plan for the closure even if it can’t — as Obama said yesterday to George Stephanopoulos — be fully shuttered in 100 days, for example.