by Peter Finn
The Washington Post
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
A key official in the Obama administration’s effort to remake detention policy and close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay has resigned.
Phillip Carter, who was appointed deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee policy in April, said in a brief telephone interview that he was leaving for “personal and family reasons” and not because of any policy differences with the administration. He tendered his resignation Friday, Pentagon officials said.
Carter, a lawyer and Iraq war veteran, was responsible for coordinating global policy on detainees.
He has helped craft policies that will allow hundreds of prisoners held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan to challenge their indefinite detention under a new review system. Carter was also involved in the administration’s effort to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which holds 215 terrorism suspects.
His departure comes at a critical moment for the administration, which is trying to find a location in the United States to stage military tribunals and place some of the Guantanamo inmates in indefinite detention. He spoke last week at a community forum in Thomson, Ill., the site of a maximum-security state prison that the administration is seriously considering to house some detainees from Guantanamo.
The article continues at WaPo.
