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21 Oct, 2009 21:14

Easier said than done: Gitmo closing poses new challenges

The U.S. Senate has voted to allow more transfers of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S. to face trial. The bill will now head to the White House for President Obama to sign into law.

However, the prisoners will not be allowed to remain in the United States afterwards, even to serve prison terms.

Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, notes that this decision will pose serious challenges for the United States.

“Some of the detainees have to be sent home and should be sent home but there are other detainees who can’t be sent home because they will be in danger of being tortured and abused,” he said. “And for those detainees, the Obama administration has to find other countries that will take them and resettle them.”

Anders added that the current administration has a lot to do to meet its January deadline for closing the Guantanamo facility.

“They have to find places to take care of about 220 detainees. They have only resettled a little less than two dozen detainees this entire year to date,” he said. “It is still hard to see how it going to get accomplished in the next three months.”

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