AG Holder: GITMO Unlikely to Close By Deadline

AG Eric Holder became the latest administrative official to announce that GITMO isn't going to close when it's supposed to on January 22nd, 2010.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that it will be difficult to meet the administration's Jan. 22, 2010, deadline to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

"It's going to be difficult for us to make the January deadline," Holder said in a press conference with reporters on Tuesday, adding, "It doesn't mean we're not going to try to do that."

Holder then asserted that GITMO will get closed sometime, though didn't give a date. I suppose that someday GITMO will get closed but it isn't any day soon. I believe that the Obama administration is now realizing that Bush didn't keep GITM open for nefarious reasons. Instead, Bush kept GITMO open because there was simply no viable option. I believe that Bush wanted to close GITMO but he simply couldn't find a way to do it.

Now, President Obama is realizing the same thing. No area of the U.S. wants them. Foreign countries will only take the mildest detainees. No one is going to take any really bad apples. Of course, there's all sorts of issues with moving these folks, be it into the U.S. or somewhere else abroad.

So, President Obama is realizing the same thing President Bush realized. He's realizing that closing GITMO is a lot more difficult to do than to say. The only difference was that President Bush made no bold proclamations about its closure.