Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel named a veteran Capitol Hill lawyer Tuesday to rejuvenate the Pentagon's flagging efforts to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Paul Lewis, a Democratic lawyer for the House Armed Services Committee and a former judge advocate in the Marine Corps, will take the Pentagon's newly created job of special envoy for Guantanamo closure. He will start Nov. 1.
Lewis will work with Clifford Sloan, who holds a similar post in the State Department, to revive the administration's attempts to empty the prison at Guantanamo, which holds 164 inmates who were captured overseas after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.