Less than seven months after assuming the post, Phillip Carter has resigned from his position as the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee policy.

Mr. Carter was in charge of closing the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention center.

This news follows the President’s annoucement that the timetable for closing the controversial facility will not be met by January 2010 as previously anticipated. Currently, the administration is determining a location to house the detainees in the United States and close the center. According to a Pentagon spokesman, Carter, 34, cited his resignation was due to “personal and family” reasons.

Carter, an attorney and former Army captain, also served in Iraq. His decision has ignited fires of spculation, if perhaps his resignation had anything to do with the White House’s recent statement on the now-revised Gitmo timetable.

An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration’s detention policies, Carter joined the Pentagon’s staff in April. At this point, no replacement has been named for Carter’s position.