Guantanamo Bay closure "proving difficult"
Barack Obama's deadline for closure of Guantanamo Bay will prove "difficult"
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By Matthew Champion. |  |
Wednesday, 07, Oct 2009 03:04
By Richard James.
Barack Obama's deadline for the closure of Guantanamo Bay will prove "difficult", the US attorney general has admitted.
Eric Holder cited the relocation of detainees as one of the main problems still to be overcome.
"It's going to be difficult for us to make the January 22nd deadline," he said.
There has been considerable objection to the plans to relocate some of the detainees currently held in the prison camp on US soil.
However, Mr Holder remained confident the Cuban base would eventually close.
At present there are 223 suspects held at Guantanamo, with 80 eligible for release.
The US attorney general said the process of reviewing all the detainee cases to decide whether individuals should be prosecuted or detained without charge had been completed.
Mr Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay just days after taking office in January, setting the deadline for January 22nd 2010.
Since then only 27 prisoners have been transferred to other countries.
US defence secretary Robert Gates has already warned it will be "tough" to close the prison camp by the start of next year.