The Obama administration Thursday created a top level diplomatic position of globe-trotting Guantanamo Closure Czar to plead individual war on terror detainee cases in Europe and the Middle East.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed Daniel Fried to the new post on Thursday in a State Department announcement that described him as "a seasoned diplomat with a strong record of accomplishment."
Fried, a career diplomat, will become the latest special envoy appointed by the White House. He is currently Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, responsible for the division that handles NATO enlargement and coordination with the European Union on democracy, human rights, economics, war on terror and nonproliferation issues.
In this case, his mandate is to persuade European countries as well as Yemen to take back some of the 240 or so long-held prisoners. President Barack Obama has ordered the prison camps emptied by the end of his first year in office, to be preceded by a now ongoing case-by-case review of the detainees' files.
Some of the men are likely to be charged in criminal or military courts, while the U.S. has long been seeking to return or resettle dozens of others under a process the president assigned to Attorney General Eric Holder.
State Department officials had a role in finding nations to take Guantanamo detainees during the Bush administration.
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