Guantánamo: Biden government says it intends to close prison

Guantánamo: Biden government says it intends to close prison

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When asked by a reporter at a news conference on Friday whether the prison would be closed when President Joe Biden resigned, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “That is certainly our aim and our intention.”

Psaki said the National Security Council is conducting an inter-agency review to “assess the situation of the Biden government, which we inherited from the previous government”.

Former President Barack Obama made a campaign promise in 2008 to close the facility until the end of his government, which was never accomplished. Former President Donald Trump kept the premises open, signing an executive order in 2018 to do so.

Trump, at the time, opened the door to sending new prisoners there as well.

“I am asking Congress to ensure that in the fight against ISIS and Al Qaeda we continue to have all the power necessary to stop terrorists wherever we are chased, wherever we find them. And in many cases for them now it will be the Bay of Guantánamo, “Trump said in 2018.

Defense Department spokesman John Kirby signaled Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s support for the closure of the detention center on Friday.

“The secretary believes that Guantánamo Bay should be closed. He fully supports the government’s desire to do this and hopes to be a partner in the process and inter-agency discussion as it goes forward,” said Kirby during a news conference.

Originally opened in 2002, the site was to be a place where suspects in the war on terrorism could be interrogated. But the prisoners were detained indefinitely, many without charges or trial and subject to allegations of abuse. As the war on US terrorism dragged on, the detention center became an international symbol of US rights abuses in the post-9/11 era.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, known as one of the main architects of the 9/11 attacks, is currently being held in Guantánamo, along with Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alawi, who is believed to have been one of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards.

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