Questions arise about Guantanamo closing date
WASHINGTON - Obama administration officials said yesterday they will not meet self-imposed deadlines for deciding what to do with scores of detainees too dangerous to release from the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The delays - involving those who cannot be tried - raise questions about whether the White House can close the prison by January, as President Obama pledged when he took office.
Although officials said that deadline would be met, a task force studying the issue is due to deliver its recommendations Jan. 22 - exactly one year after Obama issued his executive order to close the prison within a year.
The officials said they have made substantial progress in reviewing the cases of the approximately 240 prisoners at the facility and have decided that dozens of detainees are eligible for transfer to other countries or are suitable for trial.
Officials stressed the complexity of the issues and their desire to find solutions that will be acceptable to Congress but will withstand court challenge.
“We want to get this right and not have another multiple years of uncertainty,’’ one senior administration official said in a background briefing with reporters at the White House. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the deliberations.
Civil liberties groups expressed concern yesterday that the White House was planning to preserve the ability to hold some prisoners indefinitely.
“The Obama administration must not slip into the same legal swamp that engulfed the Bush administration with its failed Guantanamo policies,’’ said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “A promise deferred could soon become a promise broken.’’
Administration officials said they have not retreated from their January deadline to close the facility.
“To meet the requirement of the executive order - that is our goal,’’ one official said.
