President Donald Trump is going to sign an executive order that will keep open the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Trump’s plan will be announced during his State of the Union speech or a few days after.
According to documents obtained by Politico the order will be largely symbolic in nature, as President Obama was never able to transfer the last of Guantanamo Bay’s prisoners and close the prison during his last term in office. But the former president did oversee 200 prisoners’ transfer from the island, which now only holds 41 detainees.
The leaked document, a draft State Department cable planned to be sent to U.S. embassies around the globe, states that there are no plans to expand the prison’s population at the current time.
“At this time, we are not aware of any plans to bring additional detainees to Guantanamo Bay,” the cable says.
Trump previously gave signals that he supports the prison and how it was used in the past, adding in February 2016 that he wants to “load it up with bad dudes.” Also last year, Trump stated that he considers sending suspects accused of being part of terror groups who allegedly committed their crimes on U.S. soil to the prison.
“I would certainly consider that, yes,” Trump said, referring to the 29-year-old Manhattan terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov. “Send him to Gitmo.”
Comes as no surprise that Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year also said that he sees “no problem” with more detainees be sent to the island facility.
“There’s plenty of space, we are well equipped for it. It’s a perfect place for it. Eventually, this will be decided by the military rather than the Justice Department. But I see no legal problem whatsoever with doing that,” Sessions said, emphasizing that he will support Trump’s plan.
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