White House in 'final stages' of planning closure of Guantanamo Bay prison: spokesman

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The White House is in the "final stages" of a plan to close the contentious Guantanamo Bay detention facility and submit it for review by lawmakers, spokesman Josh Earnest says.

US president Barack Obama made the closure of the controversial offshore prison a priority when he took office in 2009, but the plan has faced numerous setbacks, including Congress blocking the transfer of detainees to mainland prisons.

"The administration is in fact in the final stages of drafting a plan to safely and responsibly [close] the prison at Guantanamo Bay and to present that to Congress," Mr Earnest said.

"That has been something that our national security officials have been working on for quite some time, primarily because it is a priority of the president."

The operation in Cuba is not an effective use of government resources, Mr Earnest told reporters.

The broader Guantanamo US military facility is opposed by the Cuban government, with which the US recently restored diplomatic relations.

Cuba says the United States is illegally occupying its land, with its foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez calling for the return of the territory while in Washington on Monday.

Secretary of state John Kerry said at the time that the US had no plans to alter its Guantanamo lease treaty. Cuba, however, says there is no lease, and that there has been none with Communist Cuba in half a century.

Washington has slowly been sending prisoners back to their home countries or to third countries, something that needs to continue if the facility is to shut, Mr Earnest said, adding that other detainees need to be prosecuted or reviewed for release.

Efforts to close prison blocked by Senate

A new special envoy tasked with closing the prison was recently appointed by Mr Kerry, filling a position vacant since December.

Lee Wolosky, a lawyer who worked under both presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush, has assumed the title of the State Department's Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure.

The post tries to manage the transfers of detainees, but the transfer of detainees to the United States is opposed by Congress and some lawmakers have tried to halt all transfers out of Guantanamo, saying the releases could lead to more attacks.

In June, the Senate endorsed a bill that strengthens restrictions on the closure of the Guantanamo prison, a plan Obama has threatened to veto.

Mr Earnest said he was concerned about seeing Congress "repeatedly impede the effort to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, despite bipartisan agreement that closing the prison is actually in the national security interest of the United States".

The military prison opened in January of 2002, shortly after the September 11 attacks in the United States.

After reaching a peak of 680 prisoners in 2003, there are 116 inmates remaining.

Just under half of the detainees remaining have been cleared to leave, but have yet to be resettled or repatriated.

AFP

Topics: prisons-and-punishment, law-crime-and-justice, terrorism, united-states, cuba