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 Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday named attorney Lee
Wolosky, who served in the National Security Council under the
administrations of both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, to a post
considered crucial to meeting President Barack Obama’s long-standing
promise to shut the internationally condemned jail at the U.S. naval
base in Cuba.
The appointment marked the latest step in Obama’s slow push to close
the detention center where terrorism suspects rounded up overseas
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have been held for years, mostly
without charges or trial.
Wolosky replaces Clifford Sloan, who stepped down at the end of last
year after 18 months in the job. He will be the State Department’s
point man to negotiate the repatriation of Guantanamo prisoners or
their transfers to other countries.
 Though Obama continues to face obstacles from U.S. lawmakers to his
long-time goal of emptying the prison, he has whittled Guantanamo’s
inmate population to 116, less than half the number when he took
office in 2009.
But the process has moved haltingly. The latest transfer, six
Yemenis sent to Oman in mid-June, followed a five-month pause in
such movements.
“We have a window in the coming months to work diligently with our
friends and allies to reduce substantially and responsibly the
detainee population at Guantanamo, as part of the president's policy
of closing the facility by the end of his term,” Wolosky said in a
statement.
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Kerry said Wolosky was “ideally qualified to continue the hard
diplomatic engagement” required to close the jail, which was opened
by Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.
Obama promised to shut it when he took office in 2009, citing the
damage it inflicted on America's image around the world. He has
often renewed his pledge, but lawmakers have restricted his ability
to transfer prisoners and have barred him from moving them to the
U.S. mainland.
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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