Thursday, 19 December 2024

Will Guantanamo detention centre ever close?

There are now just 27 detainees left at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the strip of land on the island leased to the US Navy. That's down from around 780 at the peak period of sending suspected terrorists to the most notorious prison on the planet. No president has managed to shut it down simply because there is no obvious, let alone easy, way to transfer all the detainees to other places of detention without someone in the intelligence business in the US kicking up a fuss or Congress going mad at the thought of any of them being shifted to a prison in the US. But it's down to 27. There are some who will never be released, let alone transferred to another country. These are the five so-called alleged 9/11 conspirators accused of planning, financing and orchestrating the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. Of the 27 remaining Gitmo detainees, 15 are "eligible" for transfer if some other country or countries will agree to take them, three are waiting for a periodic review board to assess their case for transfer or release, seven are involved in the US Military Commissions (like war tribunals) process, including the 9/11 chargees (one of whom has been designated as unfit mentally to stand trial) and just two have been convicted and sentenced. So, potentially, 18 of the detainees could, eventually, be transferred to jails in other countries. That would leave nine in this huge detention camp with hundreds of US troops guarding them at phenominal cost. Will Donald Trump get it sorted and close Gitmo down after 22 years? It seems highly unlikely. I don't think he is interested in or cares about Gitmo. Obama failed to shut it down despite promising to do so. Biden failed as well although the number of detainees continued to come down. So I predict Guantanamo will stay open for business for at least another four yers and probably a whole lot longer.

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