Obama orders Guantanamo Bay closure - so where will the prisoners go?

President Obama has decided to close Guantanamo Bay in an effort to save up to $180 million in operating costs alone.

Guantanamo Bay has held terrorists since 2002, but today U.S. President Barack Obama announced that he, by executive order, will be closing the prison.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Obama's announcement came Tuesday morning, where he clarified the reasons behind the decision to close Guantanamo Bay.

"It's been clear that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay does not advance our national security. It undermines our standing in the world."

Though closing the prison, which currently houses 91 prisoners that cost $3 million annually, certainly makes human rights activists happy, it is also providing an opportunity for up to $180 million saved each year in operating costs alone.

Of the existing inmates, between 30 and sixty will be transferred to one of thirteen American facilities - six of which are on military bases - and will retain their legal status.
 
The remaining inmates will be sent to other countries and will be held in maximum security prisons.

Plans to relocate the prisoners have yet to clarify which of the appropriate locations will be used.
Obama has been planning to close Guantanamo Bay since he took office, and his decision to do so is expected to save the United States from paying $475 million in construction costs.

Mac Thronberry, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said his panel would hold a hearing on the Obama administration's closure plan, but NBC News reported that Thronberry sent Obama a letter to warn that Congress will be holding the administration to exceptionally high standards.

Though Obama plans to move the Guantanamo Bay detainees into United States facilities, it is currently illegal to do so.

The Obama administration is currently drawing up plans to enact the closure and will be presenting their proposal to Congress in the near, but so far undisclosed, future.

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