The Pentagon's detention facility at Guantanamo Bay once held hundreds of men held captive by US forces and their allies in the war on terror. As the prison enters its 24th year, there are now only 15 inmates.
President George W. Bush opened it and filled it. President Barack Obama tried to shut it down, but failed. President Donald J. Trump said he would load it with “bad guys,” but he didn't. President Biden said that he wants to finish what Mr. Obama started, but he will not be able to do it.
Unless Congress lifts a ban on the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to US territory, the costly naval operation could drag on for years until the last detainee dies.
Who is in Guantanamo now?
The The remaining 15 prisoners 45-63 years old. They are from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen. One is stateless Rohingya and the other is Palestinian.
All but three were transferred from the CIA's secret overseas prison network to Guantanamo Bay, where the Bush administration hid people it deemed “the worst of the worst” until 2006.
Five people are indicted in the 9/11 case, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is accused of planning the attacks. One a Saudi man is accused of organizing Bombing of the USS Cole The death of 17 US sailors in 2000. These are hard cases that are never judged.
He is the longest serving prisoner Ali Hamza al-BahlulIn 2001, four months after the September 11 attacks, he was brought to the base from Afghanistan on the day the prison opened. He is the only prisoner currently serving a life sentence.
In the early years of the detention operation, some of the youngest prisoners were teenagers. The youngest today Walid bin Attash45, the defendant who was found guilty in the September 11 case was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.
The oldest Abdul-Hadi al-Iraqi63-year-old, the most physically disabled prisoner in Guantanamo Bay. He was found guilty of committing war crimes during the war in Afghanistan in 2003-04.
The prison was used only for suspected members of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban or their associates. None of them were women or US citizens.
Why didn't the president close it?
Congress won't allow it.
Every year, it passes legislation that prohibits the transfer of any Guantanamo detainee to US soil for any reason.
But the Obama administration has come to the conclusion that it cannot release everyone, and to close the prison, at least some of the prisoners must be held in the Guantanamo-style prison in the United States.
Also, the CIA is likely to object to the transfer to a third country of former detainees who know classified information about their arrests, for example, because they say they were tortured.
For now, US intelligence agencies monitor all of their communications to avoid leaking state secrets.
Do we know how much it costs?
Not quite. A recent comprehensive study of prison management costs by The New York Times in 2019 put the number higher. $13 million per year per prisoner. Much of this went to support court operations and prison staff.
At the time, there were 40 prisoners and a Pentagon staff of 1,800 US forces.
By that measure, it would cost $36 million to house each inmate there in 2025.
However, operating costs have changed. The Pentagon has reduced its staff more than half and hired more contractors, which could be more expensive than soldiers serving nine-month tours of duty.
The court-martial cost hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries, infrastructure and transportation. Since 2019, the Office of Military Commissions has added two new courtrooms, new offices and temporary housing, more lawyers, more security personnel, and more contractors.
Increasingly, costs associated with litigation are considered a national security secret and are not subject to public scrutiny. But snapshots emerge. Prosecutors paid the forensic psychiatrist $1.4 million in consulting fees on September 11.
Is CIA torture to blame?
is a factor. If some of these detainees were taken directly to the United States immediately after their capture, they would be in federal custody and potentially already facing trial in US courts.
Instead, 12 of the last 15 were held in CIA-run “black site” prisons abroad, where they were held incommunicado and interrogated. Waterboarding, beatingsinsomnia and years of isolation.
Because of what was done to them and where they were, the Bush administration chose to try the men at a new national security court it created at Guantánamo. The courts have been stuck in pre-trial hearings for more than a decade, focusing on smearing their torture; how much prisoners' lawyers and the public knew about it; and therefore efforts to stop the works.
The rest of the prisoners are in poor physical and mental health, which advocates attribute to prolonged solitary confinement and abuse. Some suffer from brain damage and shocks and insomnia. Others have damaged their gastrointestinal system as a result of rectal abuse.
Congress is funding a new $435 million medical clinic at the base.
Can more prisoners be released?
Three of the 15 detainees will be released if the State Department can find countries to settle and monitor their activities. These are stateless Rohingya, Somalia and Libya.
Three other detainees who have never been charged, all ex-CIA detainees, have not been cleared but receive periodic checks. One of them is one Afghan man wanted by Taliban leaders repatriated.
Also, as part of the plea deal, the disabled Iraqi prisoner could serve his sentence, which ends in 2032, under the supervision of a U.S. ally who can better care for him. The State Department has plans to send him to a prison in Baghdad. But he suing the government to stop this transfer. His lawyers argue that Iraqi prisons are inhumane and would violate the United States' commitment not to forcibly send someone to a country where they could face violence. They also say Iraq cannot afford to adequately care for him, which is a condition of his confession.
Who released the most prisoners?
sent by the George W. Bush administration 780 men and boys Guantanamo, and released about 540 of them in the first years of the enterprise. The CIA delivered the last prisoner there in 2008. No other administration has sent detainees to Guantanamo Bay.
The Obama administration released another 200 people. Many of them were relocated to third countries because their homelands were too unstable to reintegrate them into society or to monitor their activities.
Although Mr. Trump campaigned to fill the seat before his first election, his administration has not sent anyone there. That left one – a Saudi repatriated to Saudi Arabia to serve his sentence for war crimes there.
The Biden administration released 25 prisoners, about half through repatriation and mostly in his final days in office.