Another Shift in the President's Priorities

After campaigning in 2016 to "load up" Guantanamo Bay, the President now has explicitly said that he does not want to send anymore fighters there. David Welna, a reporter for NPR, reports that during a visit with the Australian Prime Minister, the President said that "the Unites States is not going to have thousands and thousands of people that we've captured stationed at Guantanamo Bay, held captive at Guantanamo Bay for the next 50 years spending us billions and billions of dollars." (Welna, npr.org) This change may have been sparked by recent reports that the annual costs per prisoner adds up to $13 million, and now there are 40 remaining.

Before these financial reports came out, an executive order was signed last year authorizing the renovation and expansion of prison facilities at GITMO. This order led many who follow this issue to believe that the administration was preparing to imprison Islamic State fighters from Iraq and Syria. However, because the President has a business perspective when making most of his decisions, these astronomical numbers caused him to reprioritize saving America's money over the imprisonment of those he refers to as "bad dudes". Now, he has suggested releasing them at borders, but it is unclear if he is referring to the borders of our European allies who have captured the fighters, or the fighters home country borders.

 

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