diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py
index 41613f6cb61..a930483463b 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py
@@ -417,7 +417,7 @@ class RequestWithMethod(urllib2.Request):
     def __init__(self, url, method, data=None, headers=None):
         if headers is None:
             headers = {}
-        self._method = method
+        self._method = method.upper()
         urllib2.Request.__init__(self, url, data, headers)
 
     def get_method(self):
@@ -427,6 +427,55 @@ class RequestWithMethod(urllib2.Request):
             return urllib2.Request.get_method(self)
 
 
+def RedirectHandlerFactory(follow_redirects=None):
+    """This is a class factory that closes over the value of
+    ``follow_redirects`` so that the RedirectHandler class has access to
+    that value without having to use globals, and potentially cause problems
+    where ``open_url`` or ``fetch_url`` are used multiple times in a module.
+    """
+
+    class RedirectHandler(urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler):
+        """This is an implementation of a RedirectHandler to match the
+        functionality provided by httplib2. It will utilize the value of
+        ``follow_redirects`` that is passed into ``RedirectHandlerFactory``
+        to determine how redirects should be handled in urllib2.
+        """
+
+        def redirect_request(self, req, fp, code, msg, hdrs, newurl):
+            if follow_redirects == 'urllib2':
+                return urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler.redirect_request(self, req,
+                                                                    fp, code,
+                                                                    msg, hdrs,
+                                                                    newurl)
+
+            if follow_redirects in [None, 'no', 'none']:
+                raise urllib2.HTTPError(newurl, code, msg, hdrs, fp)
+
+            do_redirect = False
+            if follow_redirects in ['all', 'yes']:
+                do_redirect = (code >= 300 and code < 400)
+
+            elif follow_redirects == 'safe':
+                m = req.get_method()
+                do_redirect = (code >= 300 and code < 400 and m in ('GET', 'HEAD'))
+
+            if do_redirect:
+                # be conciliant with URIs containing a space
+                newurl = newurl.replace(' ', '%20')
+                newheaders = dict((k,v) for k,v in req.headers.items()
+                                  if k.lower() not in ("content-length", "content-type")
+                                 )
+                return urllib2.Request(newurl,
+                                       headers=newheaders,
+                                       origin_req_host=req.get_origin_req_host(),
+                                       unverifiable=True)
+            else:
+                raise urllib2.HTTPError(req.get_full_url(), code, msg, hdrs,
+                                        fp)
+
+    return RedirectHandler
+
+
 class SSLValidationHandler(urllib2.BaseHandler):
     '''
     A custom handler class for SSL validation.
@@ -604,7 +653,8 @@ class SSLValidationHandler(urllib2.BaseHandler):
 # Rewrite of fetch_url to not require the module environment
 def open_url(url, data=None, headers=None, method=None, use_proxy=True,
         force=False, last_mod_time=None, timeout=10, validate_certs=True,
-        url_username=None, url_password=None, http_agent=None, force_basic_auth=False):
+        url_username=None, url_password=None, http_agent=None,
+        force_basic_auth=False, follow_redirects='urllib2'):
     '''
     Fetches a file from an HTTP/FTP server using urllib2
     '''
@@ -681,6 +731,9 @@ def open_url(url, data=None, headers=None, method=None, use_proxy=True,
     if hasattr(socket, 'create_connection') and CustomHTTPSHandler:
         handlers.append(CustomHTTPSHandler)
 
+    if follow_redirects != 'urllib2':
+        handlers.append(RedirectHandlerFactory(follow_redirects))
+
     opener = urllib2.build_opener(*handlers)
     urllib2.install_opener(opener)
 
@@ -750,7 +803,8 @@ def url_argument_spec():
     )
 
 def fetch_url(module, url, data=None, headers=None, method=None,
-              use_proxy=True, force=False, last_mod_time=None, timeout=10):
+              use_proxy=True, force=False, last_mod_time=None, timeout=10,
+              follow_redirects=False):
     '''
     Fetches a file from an HTTP/FTP server using urllib2.  Requires the module environment
     '''
@@ -767,14 +821,16 @@ def fetch_url(module, url, data=None, headers=None, method=None,
     password = module.params.get('url_password', '')
     http_agent = module.params.get('http_agent', None)
     force_basic_auth = module.params.get('force_basic_auth', '')
+    follow_redirects = follow_redirects or module.params.get('follow_redirects', 'urllib2')
 
     r = None
     info = dict(url=url)
     try:
         r = open_url(url, data=data, headers=headers, method=method,
-                use_proxy=use_proxy, force=force, last_mod_time=last_mod_time, timeout=timeout,
-                validate_certs=validate_certs, url_username=username,
-                url_password=password, http_agent=http_agent, force_basic_auth=force_basic_auth)
+                     use_proxy=use_proxy, force=force, last_mod_time=last_mod_time, timeout=timeout,
+                     validate_certs=validate_certs, url_username=username,
+                     url_password=password, http_agent=http_agent, force_basic_auth=force_basic_auth,
+                     follow_redirects=follow_redirects)
         info.update(r.info())
         info['url'] = r.geturl()  # The URL goes in too, because of redirects.
         info.update(dict(msg="OK (%s bytes)" % r.headers.get('Content-Length', 'unknown'), status=200))
@@ -787,7 +843,7 @@ def fetch_url(module, url, data=None, headers=None, method=None,
     except (ConnectionError, ValueError), e:
         module.fail_json(msg=str(e))
     except urllib2.HTTPError, e:
-        info.update(dict(msg=str(e), status=e.code))
+        info.update(dict(msg=str(e), status=e.code, **e.info()))
     except urllib2.URLError, e:
         code = int(getattr(e, 'code', -1))
         info.update(dict(msg="Request failed: %s" % str(e), status=code))