Senior White House administration officials said on Friday that closing the Guantanamo Bay Prison is very unlikely happen in January 2010 due legal complications.
The United States military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will not be closed after all because of legal complications and logistical problems in transferring 220 military detainees to another location, according to
CNN.
The
internationally community has found Guantanamo to be morally repugnant and this will be a huge dent to President Barack Obama because he signed an executive order to shut down the prison in February. Nevertheless, administration officials are still optimistic that they will close the facility sometime in the future.
Also, officials told
Fox News that it would take an extended period of time to review in-depth and lengthy reviews of each detainee.
However, Republicans, like former Vice-President Dick Cheney, will be happy with this delay because many feel that the US will be unsafe if the facility comes to an end. Cheney did suggest, however, that if the President would close down the prison then he would have to have a detailed plan.
In recent months, Pres. Obama has shuffled his cabinet in overseeing the closure of Guantanamo. The President
replaced White House Counsel Greg Craig with three senior advisers Pete Rouse, Tom Donilon and John Brennan.
Senior administration officials have been working steady at finding third-party nations to accept detainees from Gitmo.
In a written announcement from Republican Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell he states, “Even White House officials are now acknowledging that there is still no alternative that will keep Americans as safe as housing detainees at that secure facility off our shores. Americans and a bipartisan majority in Congress will continue to reject any effort to close Guantanamo until there is a plan that keeps Americans as safe or safer than keeping detainees in the secure detention center."
The United States military prison was opened by former President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and is a facility to imprison Al-Qaeda, Taliban and other terrorist groups that have committed any crimes against the US.
