Gitmo Expenses Prompt Trump To Re-Examine Proposed Plan To Restock Prison With Terrorists

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th September, 2019) Reports that the detention center at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is spending more than a half-billion Dollars yearly to house 40 prisoners prompted President Donald Trump to tell reporters on Tuesday that he is taking a new look at the facility.

"It costs a fortune to operate it and I think it's crazy," Trump said about the detention commonly known as Gitmo.

Trump stopped short of suggesting he could close Gitmo, which once held nearly 800 detainees, most captured following the 2003 US invasion of Afghanistan. The US president did, however, say he would re-examine the facility's future.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump promised to not only keep Gitmo open, but to also restock the facility with newly captured terrorists.

In Thursday's conversation with a group of reporters, Trump characterized continued operation of Gitmo an unwanted burden for his administration.

"We're stuck with it," Trump said, after noting that former President Barack Obama had failed to close Gitmo, as promised, before leaving office.

Trump's remarks were prompted by a The New York Times report this week that the United States is spending more than a half-billion dollars each year to house 40 remaining detainees.

The annual $13 million cost per prisoner at Gitmo - about $520 million total - compares with the $78,000 spent on each inmate at the Super Max prison in the US state of Colorado, according to the report.

The Colorado facility claims several prominent terrorists including Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, shoe bomber Richard Reid and September 11, 2001 attack planner Zacharias Moussaoui.