President Joe Biden signed the fiscal 2024 defense budget approved by Congress, but criticized provisions that prevent him from closing Guantánamo prison and transferring its inmates.
The president reported in a statement that he signed the bill with the new budget because it gives the Pentagon the opportunity to have an army capable of “deterring future conflicts.”
However, Biden criticized the fact that the text “continues to prohibit the use of funds for the transfer of detainees from Guantánamo Bay” to the USA or other countries.
The president stressed that these provisions “unduly undermine” the government's ability to determine when and where detainees at Guantánamo are processed and where they should be sent upon their release.
He even stressed that this could prevent compliance with a court ruling that ordered the release of one of the detainees through a writ of habeas corpus. “I call on Congress to lift these restrictions as quickly as possible,” Biden said.
Located on a US naval base in eastern Cuba, the Guantanamo Bay detention center was opened in 2002 by order of then President of the United States George W. Bush in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Since then, it has been the target of nearly 800 suspected terrorists detained in Afghanistan and Iraq. Guantanamo was at the center of the storm because of secret detention and torture programs that included simulated drowning and techniques to prevent prisoners from sleeping. Today there are fewer than 40 prisoners.
The defense budget for fiscal year 2024 is $886 billion, 3% more than that for 2023, which was estimated at $858 billion.
It used to be the secret US prison that housed suspected terrorists after the 2001 attacks. To see more from Telemundo, visit https://www.nbc.com/networks/telemundo
The new package includes a pay increase for the military and includes items to deter China in the Indo-Pacific and support Ukraine in the war with Russia.
However, most of the military support for Kyiv is still pending approval of a special national security grant that President Joe Biden sent to Congress, but Republicans are blocking it.