US President Barack Obama delivered an angry parting shot at Congress, berating Republicans for blocking his efforts to close the military prison facility at Guantanamo Bay.
The facility "never should have been opened in the first place" Obama said in a terse two-page letter yesterday. "There is simply no justification beyond politics for the Congress' insistence on keeping the facility open."
The Obama administration has conducted a flurry of last-minute transfers, and this week sent eight Yemenis and two Afghan inmates to Oman.
That brought the number of men remaining at Guantanamo down to 45, but in his letter Obama said only 41 remained. A US defense official confirmed the transfer of four additional detainees, but did not immediately provide details.
Obama struggled to find a solution to the vexed question of what to do with the forever detainees, and it is uncertain they could be convicted in a civilian court.
The outgoing president had tried to transfer many detainees abroad and bring the most high-value ones to the United States, but funding was blocked by Republicans and even some in his own Democratic party pushed back against closure plans.
Obama repeatedly said the controversial prison served as a "recruitment tool" for terrorist organizations and was a waste of money -- it currently costs about $7 million per detainee a year.
Obama's successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has vowed not just to keep Guantanamo open, but to boost the number of terror suspects housed there -- even raising the prospect of US citizens being sent to the facility.
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