Trump signs order to keep Guantanamo Bay prison open

31 January 2018, 5:07 pm

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US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to keep open the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, marking a formal reversal of his predecessor’s eight-year effort to shut it down.

Trump made it clear during his campaign that he wanted Guantanamo to remain open and to “load it up with some bad dudes,” but he has not yet sent a new detainee to the facility.

Illustrative: A sailor stands watch over a cell block in Guantanamo Bay’s detention facility while detainees look through magazines and books, on March 30, 2010. (Joshua Nistas/US Navy/Department of Defense)

The order, which Trump signed last night just before delivering his first State of the Union address, says the US maintains the option to detain additional enemy combatants at the detention center in Cuba when lawful and necessary to protect US national security.

It requires the defense secretary to recommend criteria for determining the fate of individuals captured by the United States in armed conflict, including sending them to Guantanamo.

— AP