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Obama unlikely to close Guantanamo soon

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-13 11:30

WASHINGTON -- US President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in the first 100 days of his presidency, US media said on Monday.

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Analyzing Obama's interview with ABC's "This Week" on January 11, the Los Angeles Times said he acknowledged that not everything he promised to do during the campaign would be able to happen quickly, including the shutdown of Guantanamo.

Newsweek said in one story that the president-elect had promised to reverse some Bush administration policies on the war on terror, including Guantanamo, but "it may not be simple."

In a separate story, Newsweek presented the case of Cole (a US warship) bombing architect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Guantanamo detainee, as one of the "tricky dilemmas facing the new Obama administration."

The United States opened Guantanamo prison in January 2002, to hold terror suspects and Taliban members mainly captured during the US-led war in Afghanistan.

To date, about 250 prisoners are still being held there.

The international community and human rights groups have been constantly calling for its closure.

Obama promised to close the prison during his presidential campaign in 2007 and 2008.