For Diplomat Fried, One Tough Sales Job

Associated Press — Daniel Fried, shown in Geneva in February, is tapping 30 years of contacts for his current tall task.

By EVAN PEREZ

WSJ

WASHINGTON -- If President Barack Obama is to meet his goal of closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay in the next six months, Daniel Fried will have to play a big role.

The career State Department diplomat has become a veritable door-to-door salesman with what he readily tells associates is the "miserable job" of shopping detainees the U.S. would like to resettle in other countries.

Mr. Fried's travels include far-flung islands and big European allies, but he is still struggling to find places for some 40 detainees whose dossiers he lugs from country to country. He is hampered by congressional action that has blocked the U.S. from taking even a handful of detainees as a show of sincerity.

The U.S. has declared these 40 detainees aren't dangerous and doesn't plan to try them either in federal court or in a military commission. It would be up to the country that takes in a detainee to decide what to do with him.

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