WASHINGTON, Feb 13, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – US President Joe Biden wants to close
the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects before the end of his term, the
White House said Friday, echoing an unfulfilled campaign promise from Barack
Obama’s administration.
Asked at a press conference about a possible closure of the prison in Cuba
during Biden’s tenure, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, “That certainly is our
goal and our intention.”
She said the administration was working through the National Security
Council to “assess the current state of play that the Biden administration
has — well, we’ve inherited from the previous administration.”
In his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump expressed willingness to
keep the Guantanamo prison open and “fill it with bad guys.” The Republican
retained this position once elected.
However, some detainees were promised their release from Guantanamo under
his Democratic predecessor Obama, but he never succeeded in working out a
compromise with Congress. Biden was Obama’s vice president.
The military prison accommodates inmates linked to the US “war on terror”
including Pakistani Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of
the September 11, 2001 attacks.
It still houses around 40 detainees, 26 of whom are considered too
dangerous to be released, but legal proceedings drag on due to the complexity
of their cases.
After 9/11, the US Army, under the presidency of George W. Bush, quickly
built the detention center on a naval base belonging to the United States at
the eastern tip of Cuba, on a small enclave ceded by Cuba to the United
States in 1903, to thank its powerful neighbor for its help in the war
against the Spaniards.