Six years after making the closing of Guantanamo Bay prison a priority of his presidential campaign, President Barack Obama reaffirmed on Sunday that he will do everything he can to close the U.S. military prison located in Cuba.
"I'm going to be doing everything I can to close it," Obama said on CNN's "State of the Union with Candy Crowley," during an interview taped on Friday, Reuters reported.
"It is something that continues to inspire jihadists and extremists around the world, the fact that these folks are being held. It is contrary to our values and it is wildly expensive. We're spending millions for each individual there. And we have drawn down the population there significantly," he added.
In both 2008 and 2012, Obama campaigned for president on the promise to prioritize the shutdown of Guantanamo, but has been unable to do so, at least partly due to resistance within Congress and legislation preventing prisoner transfers to the U.S.
Senior administration officials said in October that the White House was drafting options that would allow the president to close Guantanamo by using executive action to override the congressional ban on bringing detainees to prisons in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported.
Should Congress extend restrictions, officials say Obama has two main unilateral actions he can take: Veto the annual National Defense Authorization Act, where the ban on transferring detainees to the U.S. is written, or sign the bill while declaring restrictions on prisoner transfer an infringement on his presidential powers.
The administration is working on reducing the inmate population, currently at 132, by transferring detainees already cleared for release to other countries, but officials have said that for the prison to close, some detainees will ultimately have to be sent to the U.S.
Four Afghans who had been held for over a decade at Guantanamo were recently sent home, the Pentagon said on Saturday.
