GitmoBiden Aims to Shut Down Guantanamo Prison before He Leaves Office

The Biden administration announced on Friday that it was launching a formal review of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo in Cuba, as the president has indicated his aim is to shut down the facility before leaving office. 

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that it was the administration’s intention to close the prison, something former President Barack Obama had vowed to do within a year after he was sworn in in January 2009.

The Obama Guantanamo closure policy was reversed by Donald Trump when he took over the presidency in 2017. 

The White House gave no timeline, but Psaki said the review would be “robust” and would need the participation of officials from the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and other government agencies, whose leaders are yet to be appointed.

“There are many players from different agencies who need to be part of this policy discussion about the steps forward,” she said.

The high-security facility was set up to house foreign terrorism suspects after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. 

It has come to be associated with the excesses of America’s “war on terror” due to the interrogation techniques, which human rights advocates say amounted to torture. 

“We are undertaking an NSC process to assess the current state of play that the Biden administration has inherited from the previous administration, in line with our broader goal of closing Guantanamo,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne told Reuters news agency.

“The NSC will work closely with the departments of Defense, State, and Justice to make progress toward closing the GTMO facility, and also in close consultation with Congress,” she said.

Guantanamo currently houses only forty prisoners, including five who were cleared for release through the review process undertaken by the Obama administration.