Trump says cost of running Guantánamo is 'crazy'

[Zippyjuan]

https://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...anamo-is-crazy

Obama tried to empty and close Guantanamo Bay but Congress kept blocking him. He was able to get the prisoners down from over 200 to about 40.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Trump on Wednesday expressed unease over the cost of detaining prisoners at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and said that his administration is reviewing the matter.

“I think it’s crazy. It costs a fortune to operate it and I think it’s crazy,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington, D.C., from California.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that it cost more than $540 million — roughly $13 million per detainee — to keep the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, running last year. The facility currently holds 40 prisoners, including suspects in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

When asked about the cost Wednesday, Trump said, “we’re looking into that.”

Trump has previously been an advocate for keeping the prison open, at one point during the campaign pledging to fill the prison with “some bad dudes.”

It was unclear from his comments Wednesday whether Trump has shifted his stance. When asked whether he was looking at potentially closing Guantánamo, Trump replied, “We’re looking at a lot of things.”

He also launched into a criticism of his predecessor, Barack Obama, noting that the former Democratic president pledged to close Guantánamo, but never fulfilled that goal.

“He was going to have everybody removed and Guantánamo Bay closed up by the time he left office and he didn’t do that. He didn’t do that either,” Trump told reporters. “So we’re stuck with it.”

Trump said the immediate challenge is determining what to do with ISIS fighters from Europe that the United States captured in Iraq and Syria and are being held elsewhere.

“The big decision we have now is we have thousands of people. They came from other countries. We want those countries to take them back. We did them a big favor by stopping them,” Trump said.

The president also repeated his desire to send captured fighters back to the countries in Europe they are from.

“If they came from France, we want France to take them and to try them and to do whatever they have to do with them, but that’s a very expensive situation,” Trump said.

"We are looking at a lot of things" means "we have no clue what we want to do". He was against Obama closing Gitmo and now criticizes him for failing to do so. Blame somebody else.


https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...anamo-bay-open

Trump Signs Order To Keep Prison At Guantanamo Bay Open


President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to keep open the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, after pledging during the campaign to "load it up with some bad dudes."

Signed moments before he stepped to the podium to present his first State of the Union Address, Trump said in the speech: "In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds and hundreds of dangerous terrorists only to meet them again on the battlefield, including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi, who we captured, who we had, who we released," he said, referring to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was released from Camp Bucca in Iraq in 2004.

"I am asking Congress to ensure that, in the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda, we continue to have all necessary power to detain terrorists, wherever we chase them down, wherever we find them. And in many cases, for them, it will now be Guantanamo Bay," the president added to applause.

Trump's order revokes one issued by President Obama in his first days in office that called for the facility to close, which had been a key Obama campaign promise.

[Anti Globalist]

If he thinks its crazy maybe he should give Guantanamo back to the Cubans.

[Zippyjuan]

One prisoner was released last year. https://www.scmp.com/news/world/unit...rprise-trump-u

Guantanamo Bay prisoner released in surprise Trump U-turn

Confessed al-Qaeda member Ahmed al-Darbi has been sent to Saudi Arabia, where he may remain for the rest of his 13-year sentence

The Trump administration has made its first major move related to inmates in the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, surprising observers by doing the opposite of the president’s proclaimed intention: instead of bringing in new detainees it has transferred a prisoner from the island to Saudi Arabia.

The unexpected news came in a Pentagon announcement that it had completed the transfer of Ahmed al-Darbi, 43, a confessed al-Qaeda member who pleaded guilty in 2014.

According to McClatchy news service, the prisoner was picked up by a Saudi government plane on Tuesday night and taken to a detention centre in the kingdom where he is likely to remain until he has finished his full 13-year sentence in 2027.

Al-Darbi’s removal reduces the total number of Guantanamo detainees to 40, down from about 780 men who have been held at the controversial site since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in 2002.

The Trump administration has made its first major move related to inmates in the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, surprising observers by doing the opposite of the president’s proclaimed intention: instead of bringing in new detainees it has transferred a prisoner from the island to Saudi Arabia.

The unexpected news came in a Pentagon announcement that it had completed the transfer of Ahmed al-Darbi, 43, a confessed al-Qaeda member who pleaded guilty in 2014.

According to McClatchy news service, the prisoner was picked up by a Saudi government plane on Tuesday night and taken to a detention centre in the kingdom where he is likely to remain until he has finished his full 13-year sentence in 2027.

Al-Darbi’s removal reduces the total number of Guantanamo detainees to 40, down from about 780 men who have been held at the controversial site since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in 2002.

Trump made much of his intention to restock Guantanamo on the 2016 campaign trail, and was scathingly critical of his predecessor Barack Obama’s failed attempt to close the detention centre. In January, Trump signed an executive order telling the Pentagon to keep the prison camp open and produce within 90 days a base policy review.

Defence Secretary James Mattis handed over the policy on Wednesday, saying it would give “warfighters guidance on nominating detainees for transfer to Guantanamo detention should that person present a continuing, significant threat to the security of the United States”.

Though it has not been made public, reports suggest that it is vaguely worded and changes existing policy relatively little.

So far, no new detainees have arrived at Guantanamo. But the Trump administration has followed the president’s ideological bent and dramatically slowed procedures related to the civil rights of existing inmates and has also closed Obama’s Office for Guantanamo Closure.