WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate confirmed the long-stalled nomination of Eric Fanning to be Army secretary, making him the first openly gay leader of a U.S. military service.
The voice vote approval Tuesday came after Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., dropped his opposition to Fanning after a senior Pentagon official told him that no detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be sent to the Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, or other facilities in the United States.
Roberts said he met May 10 with Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, who assured Roberts “that, I am the person who would have to execute” the moving of detainees to the mainland, “and the clock has run out.'”
Congress has included prohibitions on moving Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. in annual defense policy bills, thwarting President Barack Obama’s campaign promise to close the prison.
Roberts said he knows Obama will continue to try and close the prison at Guantanamo before he leaves office in January, but said he takes Work at his word.