By AFP – Jan 18,2017 – JORDAN TIMES
In this February 2, 2002 file photo, a detainee from Afghanistan is carried on a stretcher before being interrogated by military officials at the detention facility Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba (AP photo)
WASHINGTON — Despite a flurry of last-minute releases from Guantanamo Bay, President Barack Obama is set to fail in his eight-year quest to close the infamous military detention centre.
One of his first acts as president in 2009 was to issue an executive order to shut the controversial jail within a year, but it is clear it will remain open when he leaves office on Friday.
“I don’t anticipate that we will succeed in that goal of closing the prison, but it’s not for a lack of trying,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told his final media briefing on Tuesday.
Obama’s successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has vowed not just to keep Guantanamo open, but to boost the number of terror suspects housed there — even raising the prospect of US citizens being sent to the facility.
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Categories: The Muslim Times, United States