President Joe Biden will seek to close controversial military prison Guantanamo Bay by the end of his first four years in the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed on Friday.

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden will seek to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center by the end of his term, officials confirmed Friday 

  • The administration is undertaking a National Security Council process to "assess the current state of play" in order to implement policy regarding the prison

  • The process cannot start in earnest until numerous key policy roles are filled in the Defense, State, and Justice Departments, officials said

  • Guantanamo Bay was established by former president George W. Bush in 2002 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The administration is conducting a review in order to “assess the current state of play” in regard to the prison, news that was first reported by Reuters and confirmed by National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne in a statement to Spectrum News. 

“That certainly is our goal and our intention,” Psaki told reporters Friday when asked if the administration hoped to close the prison, located at a U.S. military base in Cuba. 

But the process cannot start in earnest until numerous key policy roles are filled, including “confirming sub-Cabinet policy roles at the Defense, State, and Justice Departments,” Psaki and Horne both stated. The administration will also consult with Congress as the NSC conducts its review. 

The history of the prison is both sordid and controversial, having been established by former president George W. Bush in 2002 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The government’s intent was to hold detainees suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, but it garnered international controversy for numerous reports of torture and horrific treatment of its inmates. 

The government’s Friday announcement marks a return to a similar policy under President Biden’s former boss, then-president Barack Obama. 

During his run for office in 2008, Obama pledged to permanently close the facility; on his second day as president, he signed an executive order mandating the prison be shuttered within a year. 

It was a promise he was unable to keep.  

Obama’s efforts to close the prison and move any remaining inmates to federal prisons within the United States was largely thwarted by Congress. Lawmakers passed two largely bipartisan bills, which prohibited transferring anyone from the base to the U.S. for any reason, in response to Obama’s order.  

Obama did succeed in decreasing the number of detainees held at the prison. Currently, of the estimated 780 people who have ever been detained at Guantanamo Bay, only 40 remain, according to The New York Times’ “Guantanamo Docket.”  

But former president Donald Trump effectively ended the Obama administration’s practice of reviewing the cases of men held at Guantanamo and releasing them if imprisonment was no longer deemed necessary. 

Trump in his 2016 campaign promised to “load” Guantanamo with “some bad dudes,” but largely ignored the issue after rescinding Obama’s policies. His administration approved a single release, a Saudi who pleaded guilty before a military commission.

Of those 40 remaining, seven men have cases pending before a military commission. They include five men accused of planning and supporting the Sept. 11 attacks. Additionally, there are two prisoners who were convicted by commission and three facing potential prosecution for the 2002 Bali bombing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.