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Bloomberg July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. may not be able to move all eligible detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to other countries before President Barack Obama’s January deadline for closing the prison, an Obama administration official said.
The effort to resettle prisoners has been hampered by legislation that bars their release in the U.S. through Sept. 30, said the official, who is familiar with the matter and spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity. American diplomats, trying to persuade other countries to take detainees before the deadline, are being asked why they should accept them when the U.S. won’t, the official said.
On his second full day in office, Obama signed an order to close the Guantanamo detention facility within one year. A multi-agency task force led by the Justice Department has reviewed more than half of the 229 detainees to determine which ones should be transferred, tried or held indefinitely, another administration official said on July 15. At least 54 of those reviewed have been cleared for transfer, that official said.
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Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, said in an interview that other countries’ reluctance to take the detainees because of the legislation is a “cop-out.”
Inhofe said he plans to introduce a measure that would permanently prohibit resettlement of Guantanamo Bay detainees in the U.S. once the current ban expires.
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