SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Rather than shutting Guantanamo, the U.S. military is gearing up for the war-crimes trial of a former child soldier at the navy base on southeastern Cuba this summer.
The case of detainee Omar Khadr highlights how President Barack Obama has struggled to carry out a pledge he made immediately after taking office to close the globally unpopular military prison, which he called a recruiting tool for terrorists.
But if some trials are to proceed without delay, there is no other viable location, thanks to congressional opposition to moving terror detainees to U.S. soil, plus the time required to buy and renovate an Illinois prison.
“The prosecutors in Khadr’s case have informed us that if the trial takes place in July 2010, it will be held at Guantanamo,” said Army Maj. Jon Jackson, one of the detainee’s Pentagon-appointed attorneys.
Court proceedings against Khadr, accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan, are farthest along. But pretrial hearings are anticipated for several other detainees at Guantanamo this year.
Obama’s order just two days into his presidency to close the prison by Jan. 22, 2010, was a symbolic break from Bush administration anti-terrorism policies. But the president has had trouble lining up help from other countries and even his own political party.
About 50 detainees have been transferred to other countries under Obama. But the administration is still trying to reach a repatriation agreement with Yemen, a country that accounts for nearly half the remaining 198 detainees.
