“For many years, it’s been clear that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay does not advance our national security – it undermines it”, Obama said in remarks at the White House.
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USA officials say the Pentagon’s long-awaited plan to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer the remaining detainees to a facility in the United States calls for up to $475 million in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operating cost savings.
Earnest twice refused to give a yes or no answer to questions about whether Obama can still close Guantanamo Bay detention center if Congress fails to approve his plan.
“We passed two provisions in the 2016 NDAA [National Defense Spending Bill], one saying you can’t send them [detainees] to the United States, one saying you can’t close [the facility]”, Inhofe stated on Tuesday of the closure plan sent to Capitol Hill sent to Congress earlier in the day.
Spokesman Josh Earnest was asked multiple times if President Obama would use executive action to close Guantanamo.
Under the plan, roughly 35 of the 91 current detainees will be transferred to other countries in the coming months, leaving up to 60 detainees who are either facing trial by military commission or have been determined to be too unsafe to release but are not facing charges.
Such a move would be trampling on the separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution, Ryan said.
President Obama has suggested the facility be closed since he first took office.
House Speaker Paul Ryan was quick to respond to the president’s remarks today, tweeting, “Mr. President: It is against the law-& will stay against the law-to transfer terrorist detainees to American soil”.
The plan has three elements beyond closing the prison, Obama said.
Mr. President: It is against the law-& will stay against the law-to transfer terrorist detainees to American soil.
“This plan has my full support”, Obama said.
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U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey: “Eight years later, the President is trying to make good on an ill-conceived campaign promise in spite of bipartisan opposition over the years and the risks to the American people. Not only are we not going to close Guantanamo, if we capture a terrorist alive, they are going to Guantanamo and we are going to find out everything they know”. In January, the group protested the prison’s 14th anniversary in front of the White House; in 2013, members held a 24-hour fast alongside various clergy members and collected signatures from more than 40 religious leaders to push Obama for closure.
