I am happy there if movement afoot to close Gitmo, and credit it to the major sacrifices the poor bastards in Gitmo have had to make, esp. with the humger strike.
And hopefully the closure process will not take another decade.
But why hire a private attorney? Besides to spread the tax payer dollars around, I mean.

but if anyone can effectively navigate the space between agencies and branches of government, it's Cliff."

Unfortunately, the s.o.b.s on the Hill have made doing such in the ordinary course of business impossible.

'In a statement, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sloan possessed the "intellect and skill as a negotiator respected across party lines."'

Thanks, elleng!

But, it is about time. The detainees need to be turned loose. If they happen to join up with the jihadist, I would call that recidivism. The US prison system has a high rate of recidivism. The Republicans think they can legislate out of the individual a return to the old way of life. We need to look at it this way, we helped them to live longer. If they chose to go out into harms way, so be it.
As an american, we have choices, pass it on.

First of all, not all the Democrats were for it and there were just 4 months when we had 60 votes in the Senate. From the time he took office the Republicans slowed the Senate down requiring EVERY procedural vote and the waiting time between them. That time was mainly spent passing ACA.

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/04/30/1941371/obama-gitmo-try-again/?mobile=nc

The bold is mine to emphasize that the president, for whatever reason, didnt act in a timely manner in 2009 and Congress, when under Republican control, put restrictions on him.

According to the article, the President has the power, today, by law to repatriate those prisoners that have been cleared for release. If he waits long enough, Congress will mess that up also. He should act now.

I know Congress will add riders to keep it open so Obama may have to veto important legislation in order to keep Congress from trying to work its will and keep Gitmo open. When all is said and done I doubt over a half-dozen of those ever held at that facility will ever be found guilty in a court of law (after appeals have been exhausted).

When did GWB/Cheney open that gulag? Seems like I heard that there are now 40-45 hunger-strike prisoners now being force-fed. Gitmo has been a black-eye on America. Close it down, the sooner the better.