
As the Biden administration ends in little over a week, the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Naval Base, which the president promised to close during his campaign four years ago, now has the fewest number of detainees since it opened in 2002. But it is still not closed.
The decrease in detainees reflects the largest release of prisoners to date that took place earlier this week when 11 Yemeni men held for two decades and never charged were transferred to Oman. Presently, there are 15 remaining prisoners, six of whom have never been charged. Of those, three have been recommended for transfer and have been waiting for years to be released, while three others have not been recommended for transfer and are being held indefinitely in “law-of-war detention.”
Two of the 15 have been convicted and sentenced, while the remaining seven have been charged but not tried for various crimes related to the 9/11 attack, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and the Bali, Indonesia bombing in 2002.
The longest held prisoner still in custody is 59-year-old Ali Hamza Ahmad al Bahlul, a Yemeni who arrived just after the prison opened. As an al-Qaeda operative, he was convicted in 2008 for “conspiracy to commit war crimes, providing material support for terrorism, and solicitation of others to commit war crimes.” In 2013, al-Bahlul’s conviction was partially overturned, but he remains in prison serving a life sentence for his conspiracy conviction.
On January 11, the 23rd anniversary of Guantánamo’s opening during the “war on terror” in 2002, as they have every year since, human rights and peace activists in cities across the country marked the occasion by calling for its closure. The prison is infamously known for the CIA’s “enhanced interrogations” a convenient euphemism for torture, that subjected detainees to brutal torture techniques in order force confessions for their “crimes”.
Activists are also demanding reparations for those unjustly imprisoned and tortured along with the transfer of prisoners charged and not yet tried to be sent to federal courts along with those who have been convicted being sent to mainland U.S. federal prisons. They remain hopeful, too, that President Biden may be in last minute negotiations currently that will see the prison closed before Donald Trump takes office. However, Congress has annually resisted and blocked closing the prison and allowing the transfer of any detainees to American soil due to their “right to due process” under the U.S. justice system. While the annual cost of operating the prison is unknown, in 2019 The New York Times estimated that it cost “$13 million per prisoner.”
Standing near the White House along the sidewalk at Lafayette Park in freezing temperatures a group of protesters, some dressed as prisoners in orange jumpsuits with black hoods over their heads, held posters, one of which asked President Biden why Guantanamo is still open. Their presence was acknowledged by some passersby but the usual crowds visiting the area were noticeably absent due to the freezing temperature. Weather aside, those present opined that they were “Standing up for what is right, just and true” in condemning the continuation of the prison’s inhumane operation.
One activist told this reporter how several years ago he and a group of others held a four-day hunger strike and vigil in solidarity for the prisoners not knowing if they knew of their action. It was only later they learned that the prisoners indeed had known and were elated that anyone cared for them and the conditions they had been subjected to.
Activists today were asking all those concerned with the situation in Guantánamo to call or email President Biden demanding that he keep his promise to close the prison before he leaves office on January 20.
Biden can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 202-456-1111
Report and photo by Phil Pasquini
© 2025 nuzeink all rights reserved worldwide