President-elect Barack Obama's choice to become the next attorney general, Eric Holder, once defended the Bush administration's arguments for holding detainees at Guantanamo Bay, a position that runs counter to his more recent comments - and to a signature policy of the incoming administration.

Holder, a confidant to Obama on legal issues, recently has been a leading voice in the chorus calling to close Guantanamo Bay, which he has described as an international embarrassment. Likewise, Obama has called it a "sad chapter in American history," pledged to close the prison at the US Navy base in Cuba, and criticized the Bush administration for arguing that terrorism suspects aren't covered by standards set by the Geneva Conventions.

But in the months after the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks, Holder defended the Bush administration's policies at Guantanamo.