Biden Wants to Close Club Gitmo

Joe Biden vThe terrorist prison was to be shut down. Guantanamo Bay He was running for president.

The facility remains open despite the fact that he tried to shut it down two years ago. news of his administration’s push for plea deals With the 9/11 According to plotters, the prison could be here for the long-term and display the political minefield that he is trying cross.

The hearings in preparation for the trial that is yet to start have been repeatedly canceled as the Biden administration seeks to strike a deal With the al Qaeda members. According to reports, negotiations between defense attorneys and prosecutors began in March 2022 and could lead to plea agreements in which capital punishment is not a possible punishment for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, and his four codefendants.

Top Republicans criticized any deal that would take the death penalty off the table.

Biden has been persistent in his efforts for the closure of the prison. Even if Mohammed and his accomplices were able to plead guilty, Republicans would still seek to prevent them from ever leaving the prison.

In late 2022, the $768 billion National Defense Authorization Act was passed. It included provisions that prohibited the Pentagon from using funds to transfer detainees to prisons in certain countries. Additionally, the Pentagon was forbidden from using funds to transfer detainees at Guantanamo bay (including those responsible for 9/11) to the United States.

Biden signed the NDAA to law in December 2022, but it also included a signing statement He criticised these provisions and indicated his desire to keep the options open for closing the prison.

9/11 TRIAL DELAYED AGAIN, AGAIN

“These provisions unduly impair the ability of the executive branch to determine when and where to prosecute Guantánamo Bay detainees and where to send them upon release,” Biden wrote. “In some circumstances, these provisions could make it difficult to comply with the final judgment of a court that has directed the release of a detainee on writ of habeas corpus, including by constraining the flexibility of the executive branch with respect to its engagement in delicate negotiations with foreign countries over the potential transfer of detainees.”

Biden added, “I urge the Congress to eliminate these restrictions.”

After unfavorable Supreme Court decisions by President George W. Bush, and an abandoned attempt by President Barack Obama for the men to be tried in a New York City federal Court, the 9/11 case at Guantanamo bay has been delayed numerous times. President Donald Trump promised to keep the prison open while Biden quietly works to end detainee operations.

The last month saw the New York Times reported The U.S. military has plans to replace Guantanamo Bay’s current hospital, which was built in 1954. “Ambulatory Care Center” Healthcare for hundreds of military prison guards who are stationed on the Island. The proposed first stage of construction is estimated at $187 million. Congress would have to approve the budget for 2024.

Despite the huge construction project, the Biden Pentagon insisted quickly that the prison would be shut down.

“The United States is focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” A Pentagon spokesperson responded to the report.

When you are Washington Examiner Visited Guantanamo Bay to attend the 9/11 pretrial hearings that were held at the island’s war court in September 2021. significant construction in preparation for a potential trial was ramping up at the naval’s base’s “Camp Justice” despite Biden’s pledge to shutter the detention facility.

When asked in February 2021 about Biden’s intention to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “That certainly is the goal and our intention.” This stance has been reiterated by the White House.

The State Department announced in July 2021, just ahead of the Taliban takeover of Kabul that August, that it was releasing Guantanamo Bay detainee Abdul Latif Nasir — a Moroccan citizen who was a key al Qaeda leader and bin Laden associate who had spent years fighting alongside the Taliban in the 1990s and after the U.S. invasion.

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The Biden administration refused to send a witness to testify In December 2021, a Democratic-led Senate meeting was held about closing down the detention facility. Republicans compared Biden’s attempts to close down the Cuban prison to U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.