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Built almost 18 years ago to hold suspected terrorists on a remote island off Cuba, Guantanamo Bay has become what appears to be the world’s most expensive prison.
The US government spent around $ 161.5 million to house the suspected mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. And until Saturday, Mohammed was due to receive a coronavirus vaccine so he could be tried and put to death if convicted.
Captured in 2003, Sheikh Mohammed confessed to being the mastermind behind some of the most prolific terrorist attacks of decades, most notably the September 11 attacks.
Mohammed’s trial against the death penalty was originally scheduled for January 11, 2021, but has been delayed due to the pandemic.
A lack of vaccinations would have made it difficult for federal prosecutors to move forward with grassroots war crimes hearings, which is why Terry Adirim, the senior deputy assistant secretary of defense for affairs of the health under President Biden, signed an order Jan. 27 to vaccinate suspected terrorists, a Pentagon spokesperson told the New York Post. Two defense officials confirmed the plan to Fox News.
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The Defense Department reversed its course on Saturday. “No Guantanamo detainee has been vaccinated,” Defense Department press secretary John Kirby tweeted. “We are putting the plan on hold and moving forward, as we revise the force protection protocols. We remain committed to our obligations to ensure the safety of our troops.”
This February 2017 photo provided by his lawyers shows Khalid Shaikh Mohammad in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. (Courtesy of Derek Poteet via AP)
It’s unclear exactly how much the federal government spends to house its Gitmo prisoners, but it is somewhere between $ 9.5 million and $ 13 million per prisoner per year. The prison currently has 40 inmates. This compares to the $ 78,000 spent per inmate at a “supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado, which houses some of the most at-risk prisoners in the United States.
Using the $ 9.5 million figure reached by NPR in a 2020 report, U.S. spending during Mohammed’s 17 years in prison has exceeded $ 161 million.
Guantanamo has reportedly cost US taxpayers more than $ 6 billion since its inception. That figure includes charter planes to and from the island with few passengers, hundreds of thousands of government aircraft that are destroyed each year due to spills of classified information, defense lawyers funded by the Pentagon priced at half a million dollars a year and in total. legal fees amounting to $ 60 million, although Guantanamo has only ever had one final conviction.
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But the New York Times tally limits the number to $ 13 million per prisoner per year. “I think it’s crazy,” former President Trump said of the cost.
About 770 foreign men and boys have been held as prisoners of war at Guantanamo, with the prison population peaking at 677 in 2003. The last prisoner to arrive on the island dates back to 2008.
The Bush administration, which opened the prison in the aftermath of September 11, released around 540 detainees, repatriating them mainly to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. The Obama administration freed 200 more.
Trump pointed out that his predecessor tried unsuccessfully to shut down the facility. “Look, President Obama said Guantánamo Bay would be closed and he never has.” Obama was prevented by Congress from transferring all 40 inmates to prisons on American soil because members did not like the idea of terrorists on American soil.
President Biden, who throughout his campaign has supported the closure of the center, was questioned last year as a Democratic candidate why the Obama administration had not been able to do so.
“You have to have the authority of Congress to do it. They’ve kept it open,” Biden said during a debate in December 2019. “Actually, we think… it’s an advertisement to create terror.”
In 2019, a high-ranking lawyer filed a whistleblower complaint against the prison, alleging “flagrant financial waste” and “flagrant mismanagement.”
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The cost has increased dramatically over the years – a 2013 Defense Department report calculated the cost of detention per prisoner to be just $ 2.7 million.
Captain Brian L. Mizer, a Navy lawyer who has represented Guantanamo detainees over the years, called the prison “America’s smallest boutique prison, reserved exclusively for suspected geriatric jihadists.”
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