Guantanamo may close by summer: U.S. official

A view of Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base August 5, 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday the U.S. government's purchase of a prison in Illinois to hold some Guantanamo Bay detainees will help close the facility in Cuba, perhaps by summer.

He told a news conference at the Justice Department that the acquisition of the Thomson Correctional Center in northwestern Illinois "goes a long way" toward shutting down the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Holder initially said he hoped the prison would be closed over the next several months, but later told Reuters in a brief interview that it could be the summer or perhaps even the early fall of next year.

Holder said the purchase of the Illinois prison to house some detainees "removes a substantial hurdle" to closing the facility. Obama administration officials had conducted a search for a site in the United States to hold foreign terrorism suspects currently incarcerated at Guantanamo.

Right after taking office, President Barack Obama pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay prison by January 22. The facility was opened by the Bush administration in 2002 after the September 11, 2001 attacks to house foreign terrorism suspects.

The United States has faced international criticism over the Guantanamo prison, where many detainees were held for years without charges and faced interrogation techniques that critics called torture.

Obama last month said that his deadline would not be met. Administration officials such as Holder have cited a number of legal, political and diplomatic problems in closing the prison, which now holds 210 detainees.

While the January 22 deadline will be missed, Holder said he wanted to make clear that "Guantanamo will be closed." Holder said he expected to go to the Illinois prison at some point to personally inspect efforts to make the facility more secure.

Holder's comments came the day after the administration announced that the federal government was buying the Illinois prison, and that some U.S. military trials for the detainees would be held there.

Republicans called the move a potential security risk.

Holder also said he recently went to New York City, where he has decided to send the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks and four co-conspirators for trial in federal court. They currently are at Guantanamo.

Holder said he was assured by local, state and federal officials in New York that trials can be held there in what he described as a "safe and appropriate manner."

(Editing by Will Dunham)