Despite efforts from the Obama administration, the controversial military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba doesn't look like it will be shutting down anytime soon.
The New York Times reports that the office tasked with providing solutions for closing the detention facility has now been shuttered.
Daniel Fried, the special envoy in charge of the office, has been reassigned and will not be replaced.
The President campaigned on a promise to close the facility, and only days after assuming office, attempted to follow through on that pledge with a Jan. 22, 2009 executive order. That order stated that the facility would be closed within one year.
The administration worked toward the goal of Guantanamo closure through a number of measures. In December 2009, Obama attempted to have the federal government acquire a prison in Illinois to house the detainees. That plan was blocked by the House Armed Services Committee.
A plan in 2011 to hold the trial of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shiek Mohammed in New York City met similar resistance and was abandoned. The Washington Post wrote at the time that this was "a decision that would mark the effective abandonment of the president's promise to close the military detention center."
The detention facility was opened in early 2002 following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. There are still approximately 166 detainees being held at the facility.
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