The democrat thus assumes a campaign promise from Barack Obama, which the latter could never fulfil due to lack of agreement with Congress

US President Joe Biden wants to close the iconic Guantanamo prison before his term ends, a White House spokeswoman said Friday.

The democrat thus assumes a campaign promise from Barack Obama, which the latter could never fulfill due to lack of agreement with Congress.

When asked at a press conference about a possible closure of the Guantanamo prison during Biden’s tenure, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “This is certainly our goal and our intention.”

“We have started a process in the National Security Council (…) to work with the different federal agencies and evaluate the current situation (…), which we have inherited from the previous government,” she said.

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump had shown his willingness to keep the Guantanamo prison open and “fill it with bad guys.”

Once in office he maintained that position.

Obama had promised the release of some detainees in that military prison that houses inmates linked to the “war on terror,” including Pakistani Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The jail still houses some 40 detainees, 26 of whom are considered too dangerous to be released, but have not undergone legal proceedings.

The detention center was quickly built on a US naval base on the eastern tip of the island of Cuba under the presidency of George W. Bush.

This 117 km2 enclave was ceded by Cuba to the United States in 1903, to thank its powerful neighbor for its help in the war against the Spanish.

The first twenty detainees arrived there on January 11, 2002, after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

From that moment on, this prison embodied, throughout the world, the excesses in the fight against terrorism in the United States.

Images of prisoners in orange overalls, behind fences topped with barbed wire, shocked the world as did the force-feeding imposed on those who refused to eat.

At the height of its activity, 780 people were detained at Guantanamo for their alleged ties to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Hundreds of them were later released or transferred to their home country or third countries.