Progress at Guantanamo

 

After four years of stagnation under Trump, the Biden administration is making valuable progress on reducing the number of inmates imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

On Feb. 12, 2021, A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki if the Guantanamo prison would be closed by the time President Biden leaves office. 

Psaki replied, “That’s certainly our goal and our intention.”

Emily Horne, a spokeswoman for Biden’s National Security Council (NSC), told NPR that closing the prison will take time. 

Horne said the NSC will work with the Departments of Defense, State, and Justice in its effort to close the prison.

President Obama tried and failed to close the Guantanamo prison. Biden served as Obama’s vice president throughout Obama’s presidency. 

In July 2021, a senior administration official told reporters during a press call that the Biden administration, “remains dedicated to a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing of the Guantanamo facility.”

Biden’s plans to close Guantanamo have drawn little attention from the public or from other politicians. 

The US military prison at Guantanamo attracts almost no political attention in the United States.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Guantanamo was rarely, if ever, mentioned.

 

Slow and steady progress

Biden administration officials have cleared 18 prisoners to be transferred if the US can obtain security assurances from the governments of the countries where the prisoners will be sent. 

The Biden administration has transferred four Guantanamo prisoners to other countries in the past year and a half.

By comparison, progress at Guantanamo slowed to a snail’s pace under the Trump administration. 

The Trump administration transferred only one Guantanamo prisoner during Trump’s four years in office. 

The Trump administration also only cleared one prisoner to be transferred if security assurances could be obtained. 

 

Current Prisoners

Currently, there are 36 prisoners at Guantanamo. 

A total of 20 prisoners have been approved for transfer if appropriate security measures are met.

Nine prisoners have been charged in the military commissions. 

Two prisoners have pled guilty in the military commissions.

One prisoner has been convicted by a military commission.

And four prisoners are being detained indefinitely as enemy combatants under the Laws of War. 

 

This chart shows the status of the 36 inmates imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay as of Aug. 23, 2022. 

 

History

The Bush administration chose to send prisoners captured in the War on Terror to the military prison located at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The first War on Terror prisoners arrived at Guantanamo on Jan. 11, 2002.

All of the War on Terror prisoners ever imprisoned at Guantanamo were sent to the prison during the Bush administration.

The final detainee was sent to Guantanamo in 2008, the last year of the Bush administration.

In total, 779 people were detained at Guantanamo.

But not all of those inmates were imprisoned at Guantanamo simultaneously.

The facility’s detainee population peaked in 2003, with 680 prisoners. 

 

This chart shows the number of detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo at the end of each calendar year.

 

The Bush administration released hundreds of the prisoners it had sent to Guantanamo.

In fact, more than 66 percent of all Guantanamo prisoners were transferred out of Guantanamo during the Bush administration.

 

This chart shows the status of all 779 War on Terror detainees ever imprisoned at Guantanamo. Nine prisoners died at Guantanamo during the Bush and Obama administrations.

  

By the end of the Bush administration, 242 detainees were imprisoned at Guantanamo.  

Prior to his first term, Obama campaigned on closing the US military prison at Guantanamo.

During his first week as president, Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo within a year.

While he didn’t succeed in closing the prison, Obama significantly reduced the number of detainees imprisoned there.

By the end of Obama’s presidency, his administration reduced the number of people imprisoned at Guantanamo to 41.

In 2016, Trump campaigned on keeping Guantanamo open and filling up the prison with “bad dudes.”

No new prisoners were sent to Guantanamo during the Trump administration, but progress on reducing the size of its inmate population almost ground to a halt.

Only one Guantanamo prisoner was transferred by the Trump administration, pursuant to a plea agreement reached in a military commission under the Obama administration.

At the end of Trump’s presidency, 40 inmates were imprisoned at Guantanamo.

Now under President Biden, valuable progress is being made on Guantanamo once again. 

Biden has already transferred four Guantanamo prisoners, bringing the total inmate population down to 36.