Eric Holder, Sen. Barack Obama’s choice as the nation’s top prosecutor, said Thursday during his confirmation hearing that he would shut down the troubled detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He told the Senate Judiciary Committee that while closing the compound is not so tough, finding a place for the roughly 250 inmates residing there poses a more difficult dilemma. Some of them can be prosecuted, he said, but others would have to be sent to other countries.  He added, however, that some are in limbo, because they can’t be put on trial “for a variety of reasons” and can’t be released because they are too dangerous. That reality, he noted, would prevent the Obama administration from closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility “as soon as we’d like.” Holder also promised the committee that he would ban torture or any interrogation techniques that would violate America’s treaty obligations or be used by America’s enemies as a recruitment tool.

TAGS: attorney general, Eric Holder, Senate hearings

Comments (12)