The White House has presented to Congress a plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, one of the President’s long standing goals. He wants to transfer the remaining 91 detainees to their home countries or to US military or civilian prisons.
But Congress is deeply opposed to terror suspects being held on US soil and is expected to block the move. The prison costs 445 million dollars to run annually and closing it was a 2009 promise from President Barack Obama. Human rights campaigners have repeatedly complained about the prison in Cuba, which has held 780 detainees since it opened in 2002.