is Guantánamo prison in its last days? US President Joe Biden wants to close this infamous place before the end of his term, as the White House spokeswoman said on Friday February 12, 2021. The Democrat thus takes up a campaign promise from Barack Obama, which the latter has never been able to keep for lack of a compromise with Congress.
Asked at a press conference about a possible closure of Guantánamo prison during Joe Biden’s tenure, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “This is certainly our goal and our intention. “” So we started a process with the National Security Council […] to work with the various federal agencies and assess the current situation […], which we inherited from the previous government, ”she added.
Filling Guantánamo with “bad guys”
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump had shown his willingness to keep Guantánamo prison open and “fill it with bad guys.” The Republican had retained this position once elected. Some detainees were however promised their release from Guantánamo under his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.
The military prison accommodates inmates linked to the “war on terror”, including Pakistani Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks. It still houses around 40 inmates, 26 of whom are considered too dangerous to be. released, but legal proceedings drag on due to the complexity of their cases.
The US military, under President George W. Bush, quickly built this detention center on a US-owned naval base at the eastern tip of the island of Cuba. This 117 km enclave2 (of which only 49 km2 de terre) had been ceded by Cuba to the United States in 1903, to thank its powerful neighbor for his assistance in the war against the Spanish.
Excess
The first twenty inmates arrived there on January 11, 2002, a few weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks. From that time on, this prison has embodied, throughout the world, excesses in the fight against terrorism in the United States. The images of prisoners in orange overalls, behind fences topped with barbed wire, were shocking, as were the force-feeding imposed on those refusing to eat.
At the height of its activity, on the embers of the “war on terror” launched by George W. Bush, 780 people were detained in Guantánamo for their alleged links with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Hundreds of detainees have since been released or transferred to their homeland or third countries.
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