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President Barack Obama has chosen a high-powered Washington lawyer with extensive experience in all three branches of the government to be the State Department's special envoy for closing down the military-run prison at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. 
  
 Clifford Sloan is the pick to reopen the State Department's Office of Guantanamo Closure, shuttered since January and folded into the department's legal adviser's office when the administration, in the face of congressional obstacles, effectively gave up its attempt to close the prison. 
  
 A formal announcement of Sloan's appointment was expected Monday, according to officials briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the appointment publicly before the formal announcement. 
  
 Sloan has served in senior government positions in both Democratic and Republican administrations and is now a partner in the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP law firm. For the past several years, he has been an informal adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry, who recommended him for the post, the officials said. 
  
 "I appreciate his willingness to take on this challenge," Kerry said in a statement. "Cliff and I share the president's conviction that Guantanamo's continued operation isn't in our security interests." 
  
 The move fulfills part of Obama's pledge last month to renew efforts to close the military-run detention center at Guantanamo. That was a major promise in his 2008 presidential campaign, but it ran aground due to opposition from congressional Republicans. 
  
 In late May, Obama lifted a self-imposed ban on transferring Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, in what was a step toward closing a prison that he said "has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law." He said he would name envoys at both the State Department and Pentagon to try to unblock the closure process. The Pentagon envoy position has yet to be filled. 
  
 Word of Sloan's appointment follows the Republican-controlled House's overwhelming passage Friday of a $638 billion defense bill that would block Obama from closing the detention facility. The House of Representatives acted despite a White House veto threat. 
  
 The administration cited Guantanamo's prohibitive costs and role as a recruiting tool for extremists. A hunger strike by more than 100 of the 166 prisoners protesting their conditions and indefinite confinement has prompted the fresh calls for the prison's closure. Obama is pushing to transfer 86 approved detainees to their home countries. Fifty-six of the 86 are from Yemen. 
  
 Officials said Sloan, whose diverse government experience includes clerking for liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and conservative prosecutor Kenneth Starr, would focus primarily on navigating between the administration and Congress to overcome the deep, largely partisan divide over closing Guantanamo. 
  
 "It will not be easy, but if anyone can effectively navigate the space between agencies and branches of government, it's Cliff," Kerry said. "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." ||||| WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Monday is expected to name Cliff Sloan, a Washington lawyer and confidant of Secretary of State John Kerry, as the new diplomatic envoy for the shutdown of the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official said on Sunday. 
  
 President Obama pledged in a speech last month to revitalize his faltered effort to close the prison, including naming a successor to Daniel Fried, a career diplomat who held the envoy post in Mr. Obama’s first term. The administration reassigned Mr. Fried in January. 
  
 The new appointment was first reported by The Associated Press on Sunday. An administration official confirmed the move, and the State Department circulated a statement by Mr. Kerry praising Mr. Sloan, whom he was said to have recommended. 
  
 “I appreciate his willingness to take on this challenge,” Mr. Kerry said. “Cliff and I share the president’s conviction that Guantánamo’s continued operation isn’t in our security interests. In Iraq we’ve turned over prisoners, and we’ve transferred facilities to the Afghan government. Our fidelity to the rule of law likewise compels us also to end the long, uncertain detention of the detainees at Guantánamo.” 
  
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 Mr. Sloan, a partner at the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom law firm and a former publisher of Slate magazine, has had a varied career in government. His jobs have included stints as a White House lawyer in the Clinton administration; an assistant to Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr under the first President George Bush; a clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court, who is now retired; and an aide to a Democratic member of Congress. 
  
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 He does not have any diplomatic experience. Still, the challenge he will face may be more bureaucratic than diplomatic. Mr. Fried managed to find new homes for most of the detainees who were cleared for transfer but who could not be sent back because they came from countries whose governments might abuse them, like China. |||||
Output:
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.