President Trump said Tuesday during his State of the Union speech that he signed an executive order to keep open the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The move reverses a directive issued by President Barack Obama in 2009 that sought to close the prison, which had been used after 9/11 to hold about 780 suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
However, the prison commonly known as Gitmo was never shut down due to opposition in Congress, where many lawmakers opposed transferring detainees to prisons in the United States or releasing them.
“Today, I am keeping another promise,” Trump said while addressing a joint session of Congress. “I just signed prior to walking in an order directing Secretary [Jim] Mattis, who is doing a great job, to re-examine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay.”
Trump’s executive order could allow Mattis to again send terror suspects aligned with the Islamic State and other groups to the facility at the arid southeastern tip of Cuba, where their legal fate would remain uncertain and their detention indefinite.
“Terrorists who do things like place bombs in civilian hospitals are evil. When possible, we have no choice but to annihilate them. When necessary, we must be able to detain and question them,” Trump said. “But we must be clear: Terrorists are not merely criminals. They are unlawful enemy combatants and when captured overseas, they should be treated like the terrorists they are.”
The Obama administration could not follow through with the order to close Gitmo, but it did succeed in winnowing the number of detainees, which stands at 41.
In a particularly controversial move, Obama traded five Taliban detainees in 2014 for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who deserted his Army unit, was captured and spent five years as prisoner of war in Afghanistan.
“In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds and hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield, including the ISIS leader [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi, who we captured, who we had, who we released,” Trump said.
