State names new envoy for Guantanamo Bay

Secretary of State John Kerry has appointed a new envoy to negotiate the transfer of detainees from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Lee Wolosky, who served in the National Security Council during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, will act as State’s special envoy for Guantanamo closure, Kerry announced Tuesday.

{mosads}Wolosky is “ideally qualified to continue the hard diplomatic engagement that is required to close Guantanamo in accordance with President Obama’s directives,” Kerry said in a statement.

He said Wolosky would “assume lead responsibility for arranging for the transfer of Guantanamo detainees abroad and for implementing transfer determinations, and overseeing the State Department’s participation in the periodic reviews of those detainees who are not approved for transfer.”

Wolosky succeeds Clifford Sloan, who stepped down from the special envoy post around the end of last year.

The president pledged during his campaign to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in his first week in office. But Obama has met stiff resistance on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have passed multiple laws that tie the president’s hands on closing the controversial facility.

Last week, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter expressed serious doubt that the detention facility could be shuttered before Obama leaves office.

Earlier this month, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he expects Carter to submit a plan for closing the prison to lawmakers sometime soon.