Barack Obama Administration Committed to Close Guantanamo Prison

The administration of President Barack Obama will carry out efforts this week to persuade Congress and gain support for his plan to close the prison before leaving office

The opposition by Republicans to close the prison at Guantanamo is one of the most shameful chapters in the recent history of the United States, said today an editorial in The New York Times.

Remarks by the President on Plan to Close the Prison at Guantanamo Bay

In this regard, the publication points out, the administration of President Barack Obama will carry out efforts this week to persuade Congress and gain support for his plan to close the prison before leaving office in January.

It is added that the red party members maintain a thoughtless position and do not think when it comes to expressing their refusal to remove something that is feasible before the end of the year.

The newspaper points out that ‘It would make the United States safer, help restore America’s standing as a champion of human rights and save taxpayers millions of dollars.’

In recent weeks, it declares, the Pentagon and the State Department made considerable progress towards the goal of further reducing the number of detainees at the naval base that Washington occupies against the will of the Cuban people.

At the detention center, created allegedly to combat terrorism are still 91 inmates, out of which the government hopes to resettle 35 in other countries this summer.

Out of the remaining 56, it is clarified, 10 were convicted on charges of terrorism or have pending cases before the military commission established to prosecute terrorism suspects, while the fate of the other 46 is uncertain.

US officials are exploring the possibility of sending some detainees to allied nations that might be willing to prosecute them, while in the coming months, a review committee consisting of officials from several national security agencies will analyze whether any of the remaining detainees can be released.

The reduction of the number of inmates would make the cost of running the prison abroad increasingly difficult to justify, it adds.

The cost for taxpayers in the fiscal year 2015 reached a staggering amount of 445 million dollars, showing that for each inmate there is paid more than the cost of housing maximum-security prisoners at a federal correctional facility.

The Times adds the Pentagon officials studied the places of detention in the United States, where they can be sent, but unfortunately the Congress denies the approval of a law allowing the administration to take the prisoners to US soil.

Officials from the White House, the editorial stresses, suggest that such an attitude limits the executive authority of the president for no reason, which can trigger a constitutional showdown during the last weeks of the Obama presidency.

The Times called the heads of the armed services committees of the House and Senate to work to reach an agreement.

In this endeavor, it suggests, it should be avoided irresponsibly bellicose national security rhetoric of the Republican presidential candidates, some of whom have vowed to keep Guantánamo open indefinitely.