WASHINGTON
The U.S. is in the “final stages of drafting” a plan to close its military facility at Guantanamo Bay, the White House said Wednesday.
“That has been something that our national security officials have been working on for quite some time primarily because it is a priority of the president,” said spokesman Josh Earnest.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Obama administration’s plan to close the controversial military site is “collapsing again.”
President Barack Obama pledged to close Guantanamo shortly after he took office in 2009, but has run up against stiff resistance from Congress, which would have to sign off on any plan to shutter the site.
“There also has to be a better way for us to protect our national security interests than to deliver on a silver platter a particularly effective recruiting tool for terrorists,” Earnest said, noting that the U.S. spends more than $100 million per year to operate the prison, which now houses 116 prisoners.
Obama will veto a defense spending bill that is currently under negotiation in Congress if it includes provisions that prohibit the closing of Guantanamo, according to Earnest.
Six detainees were transferred from the site to Oman in June as the administration continues to process transfers of inmates that do not pose security threats. There is currently a ban on transferring inmates to the U.S., complicating efforts to close the facility.
