Kerry Adviser's New Job: Closing Gitmo

John Kerry says that if anyone can close Guantanamo Bay, it's his adviser Clifford Sloan. The Washington lawyer is expected to be named as the Obama administration's new envoy tasked with reopening the State Department's Office of Guantanamo Closure, the AP reports. Sloan's long and bipartisan history in government includes clerking for liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and conservative prosecutor Kenneth Starr, although he doesn't have any diplomatic experience, the New York Times notes.

"It will not be easy, but if anyone can effectively navigate the space between agencies and branches of government, it's Cliff," Kerry says. "He's someone respected by people as ideologically different as Kenneth Starr and Justice Stevens, and that's the kind of bridge-builder we need to finish this job." As part of his new push to close the detention center, President Obama has also promised to appoint a new Pentagon envoy to deal with closure. (More Clifford Sloan stories.)