Obama's Inability to Close Guantánamo Bay Isn't His Fault, Says White House

It was his first day in office as President of the United States—January 22, 2009—and President Obama was signing an Executive Order to close, within the year, the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The hope was, according to Obama, that doing so would return America to the “moral high ground” in the war against terror.

US President Barack Obama signs an executive order related to the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, January 22, 2009. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Fast-forward and we're almost eight years to the day shy of the signing ceremony, and Guantánamo remains open, with 59 prisoners still in captivity. That number had been sitting at 60 until this past weekend, when Shawqi Awad Balzuhair, a Yemeni, was released to the tiny country of Cape Verde, an island off the West Coast of Africa.

Yesterday at a speech to troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, Obama said Guantánamo remains “a blot on our national honor.”

US President Barack Obama greets service members after speaking at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida on December 6, 2016. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

His inability to close the prison is obviously a clear source of frustration, but instead of blaming himself for the failed promise, or going so far as to admit defeat on the issue, the White House says it's the fault of Congress. According to Obama spokesman Josh Earnest at Wednesday's press briefing, Gitmo's doors remain open because of inaction on the Hill:

“We have been deeply dismayed at the obstacles that Congress have erected... This is a political situation, that members of Congress in both parties, to be fair, have allowed to persist, that prevents this kind of common sense policy from being implemented and that's deeply disappointing to the president.”

Obama has made a dent in the population; during his presidency 175 prisoners have been transferred out to other countries. Twenty of those who remain as detainees have been cleared for transfer, but that still leaves 39 deemed too dangerous to release. CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan recently visited Guantánamo Bay, where she saw how some of those in captivity pass the time:

Many of the most dangerous detainees have been at Gitmo since the early 2000s, shortly after the attacks on 9/11.

Detainees talk together inside the open-air yard at Camp 4 detention facility on May 31, 2009 at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Brennan Linsley-Pool/Getty Images

Odds are the prison will remain open as President-elect Trump assumes the role of Commander in Chief come January—his newly tapped Department of Homeland Security Secretary nominee, retired General John F. Kelly, is pro-Guantánamo. The New York Times reported Thursday that Kelly's feelings about the detention center are opposite of Obama's.

“[Kelly] rejected criticism from human rights activists about the treatment of detainees and said the program to force-feed prisoners undertaking hunger strikes was reasonable and humane. He also dismissed one argument cited by those who advocate closing the military prison at Guantánamo, saying it had not proven to be an inspiration for militants.”

Earnest, hoever, says the Obama administration won't concede defeat, even though it's clear that 2009 promise will be unbroken.

“We're going to continue to do everything between now and the president's departure to reduce the prison population at Gitmo.”