BIDEN AIMS TO CLOSE DOWN GUANTANAMO PRISON: WHITE HOUSE

Sat 13 February 2021:

The newly-elected US President Joe Biden aims to permanently close down the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison during his term, the White House assured on Friday.

“That certainly is our goal and our intention,” said the White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki when asked if President Biden is planning to shut down a Cuba prison.

She assured that Biden was working in cooperation with the National Security Council in order to “assess the current state of play that the Biden administration has — well, we’ve inherited from the previous administration.”

This has come as a welcome change from the previous administration where the former President, Donald Trump, had willingly wanted to keep the Guantanamo prisons open to “fill it with bad guys”.

Biden’s assurance has come years after his first stint in the White House when Barack Obama was serving as the US President. The Obama administration had promised to release some detainees from the infamous prison but had failed to fulfil it as the administration could not succeed in working out a compromise with the Congress. The promises were made by the Obama administration with Biden as the Vice President.

Now, with Biden in the driving seat of the White House, he is hoping to fulfil that broken promise and probably shut down the prison, that is infamous for its inhumane treatment of the prisoners.

Th prison houses nearly 40 prisoners, as of now, who are considered to be too dangerous to be released, but their legal proceedings are ongoing, although delayed.

The US has long drawn criticism for its use of the prison where inmates are held without charge, and where a well-documented history of torture has been chronicled.

The notorious prison was opened by former President George W. Bush in 2002 after of 9/11 attacks.

During his two terms, former President Barack Obama’s attempt to close the facility was thwarted by congressional restrictions as well as the difficulty of reducing the number of 242 prisoners to zero.