On the second day of his presidency, Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the
U.S. Detention Facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But efforts to close the facility and move terror suspects to prisons on US soil have
since been hampered by Republican opposition.
When Obama announced that he was still determined to shut down the facility in February 2016,
concern over where Guantanamo prisoners would be relocated to, arose once again.
So we wanted to know what happens to prisoners after they leave Guantanamo?
Well, since Guantanamo Bay Prison opened on January 11, 2002, it has detained roughly
780 prisoners, predominantly from the Middle East.
The prison is home to enemy combatants captured by the US during the War on Terror, including
the suspected architect of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
As of January 2016, 91 detainees remain.
About half are still facing criminal charges, 35 have been approved for transfer out of
the prison, and ten are considered “unreleasable”.
According to the White House, these ten either cannot yet be transferred to other countries
or they pose a continuing significant threat.
If Guantanamo were to close, some could potentially be transferred to U.S. soil as per President
Obama’s most recent plan.
This includes 13 potential supermax prisons and military sites in states like South Carolina,
Kansas and Colorado.
Some republican leaders have suggested that Obama’s plan could threaten the security
of the United States.
So where have prisoner's been relocated to in the past?
There are reportedly 57 countries to which detainees have been sent, with the majority
going to Afghanistan.
Many are returned to their home countries.
Seven detainees were repatriated to Russia, where Human Rights Watch alleged they were
tortured, beaten, harassed, and given unfair trials.
Others have gone to countries like Canada, Sweden, El Salvador, and two detainees were
sent to the United States to stand trial in US court.
Some detainees are transferred to terrorist rehabilitation centers, in countries like
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, featuring psychological evaluation, medical care, exercise, and religious
counseling.
These rehab centers are designed to convert former jihadi terrorists, by using Islamic
teachings to abolish their extremist ideologies..
Saudi officials claim that their center has an 80% success rate for reforming prisoners.
However, of those prisoners who were deported and not jailed, upon release, it’s estimated
that about one in six has returned to terrorism.
President Obama said in his 2015 State of the Union address that it costs $3 million
dollars a year, per prisoner to be held at Guantanamo.
Aside from the cost, the detention center has also been the focus of worldwide attention
following years of allegedly inhumane living conditions, government sanctioned torture,
and a lack of legal standing for the prisoners.
With less than 100 detainees remaining, Obama may actually accomplish his goal of shutting
down the facility by the end of his term.
But when the options on the outside are rehabilitation, imprisonment, death, or recidivism, it is
hard to say whether that’s truly a better option than keeping it open.
The past decade and a half of war has contributed to some of the worst human rights violations
in recent years, with the United States committing its share of atrocities as well.
Government sanctioned torture has been a hot button issue, and the CIA’s release of the
Torture Report has outlined the extent of the US’s involvement.
Find out why that really matters by watching this video at the top.
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