Obama Reveals Plan to Permanently Close Guantanamo Bay

President Barack Obama presented a plan to Congress today to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, which would belatedly fulfill one of his campaign promises.

“I am encouraged to see that the President is sending Congress a plan to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison”, he said in a statement.

Cook would only say the administration looks forward to working with Congress to reach an agreement to close the detention center and relocate the hard-core terrorists to a secure facility in the United States.

With less than a year left in office, Mr. Obama unveiled a plan that says the United States should continue to transfer low-risk detainees to other countries and which describes how 13 possible replacement facilities could save the USA taxpayer millions of dollars each year.

“This is about closing a chapter in our history”, Obama said Tuesday.

There are 35 detainees now eligible for transfer. This process involves extensive and careful coordination across our federal government to ensure that our national security interests are met when an individual is transferred to another country.

783 suspected terrorists have been held at Guantanamo since the U.S. opened the prison there in 2002. “If it were easy, it would have happened years ago”, Mr. Obama said. John McCain, R-Ariz., both previously expressed support for closing the Guantanamo facility. The administration estimated a one-time transition cost to be between $290 million and $475 million, but it suggested the lower operating costs and fewer detainees would generate $335 million in net savings over 10 years. Under the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Protection Act, the President would have to receive congressional approval before “terminating, abandoning, or transferring the 45 square mile lease of land or waterways at the facility”.

The criticism, however, is not stopping the president from putting his plan before Congress. I urge Sens. Blunt and McCaskill and our Missouri delegation in the U.S. House to stand against this irresponsible plan.

“There are some restrictions put in place by Congress that make this a more hard challenge”, he said.

“I think a lot of the American public are anxious about terrorism and in their mind the notion of having terrorists held in the United States rather than in some distant place can be scary”.