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U.S. defense chief suggests departure from Obama's resolve to close Guantanamo Bay

Xinhua, September 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. defense chief Ash Carter on Tuesday suggested a departure from the White House's determination to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, calling the push by the White House "tricky".

Stressing that about half of the detainees currently at Guantanamo Bay need to be locked up somewhere "indefinitely", Carter told U.S. military service members globally via video that he was fine "if they're detained at Guantanamo."

Carter then said he supported U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to close Guantanamo Bay by the end of his presidency by finding a different place to house those who need to be locked up before cautioning that the plan needs to be realistic.

"It would be a nice thing to do and an important thing to do, if we can do it," said Carter. "But we gotta be realistic about the people who are in Guantanamo Bay."

The softened tone of Carter on the closure of Guantanamo Bay differed from the stance of Obama who made closing the detention facility a top priority during his 2008 campaign and had recently started his freshest effort to shutter the prison.

So far, there are 116 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, among whom 52 detainees have be approved to be transferred home or to a third country.

The U.S. Defense Department is currently examining U.S. domestic sites, including a military prison at Leavenworth, Kansas and a naval brig at Charleston, South Carolina, to house the rest detainees amid unrelenting opposition from local officials and lawmakers.

The challenges of relocating part of the prison population at Guantanamo Bay has long been plaguing the Obama administration. Under the current U.S. law, with the consent of the Congress, the White House is banned from spending money to move detainees to U.S. homeland.

Meanwhile, the White House was also struggling to clear a backlog of the 52 detainees who would be transferred home or to a third country.

The majority of the 52 prisoners come from Yemen, but as violence and terrorist attacks continued to convulse Yemen, the Obama administration would have to locate other countries which would be willing to accommodate those prisoners. Endit