Holder: Guantanamo Closing Might Be Made More Difficult By Lawmakers

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday he is worried that lawmakers' opposition to bringing terrorist suspects held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to U.S. prisons could hurt the effort to close the detention center.

"The restrictions that we've had to deal with on the Hill give me great concern," said Holder, who disputed the claim, made often by Republican lawmakers, that Guantanamo Bay detainees are simply too dangerous to be brought to U.S. soil.

"I don't see how that in fact is accurate," he said. "One of the things we're going to have to do is to come up with a facility here in the United States to house people for trials that would be held here."

The Senate on Tuesday approved a defense spending bill that would also ban any transfer of accused enemy combatants from the facility into the United States. Last week, the House passed a nonbinding recommendation against bringing detainees to this country.

Current law permits transfer of detainees to face trial or go to prison. Earlier this year, Congress passed a number of restrictions on transfers of detainees, both within the United States or to other countries, requiring prior notification to lawmakers of such moves, and explaining why such transfers are safe.

Holder said he will have to do more work to convince lawmakers that it is safe to do so.

"You can go through a litany of very, very dangerous people who are safely housed in facilities that pose no dangers to the communities that surround them," he said "I think we have a good track record."

As examples, he cited Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski.

The attorney general conceded it will be difficult to close the facility by President Barack Obama's self-decreed deadline of January 2010 but said it is important for those in government to set deadlines and try to meet them.

The Navy-run prison at Guantanamo Bay holds 223 detainees. Dozens of those have been approved for release, but U.S. officials fear they will be mistreated or killed if sent to their native countries, and they have yet to be accepted by other countries.