WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is planning to transfer several additional detainees from Guantanamo over the next several weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The paper reported that President Barack Obama intends to "announce a flurry of detainee transfers in coming weeks." He is expected to attempt to recast the debate over Guantanamo as a fiscal issue, given that keeping a detainee in the facility is extraordinarily expensive, costing roughly $2.7 million per inmate per year.
The Pentagon announced over the weekend that four Guantanamo detainees had been transferred to Afghanistan, bringing the total population of prisoners left at the military detention center down to 132. The number of detainees has dropped in recent years: In the spring of 2013, the prisoner population was 166. At its peak, Guantanamo held 684 detainees.
Obama pledged to close Guantanamo on one of his first days in office in 2009, but his intentions have been stymied by Congress as well as a lack of action from his own administration.
In an interview that aired over the weekend, Obama said the facility was "contrary to our values," in addition to being extremely expensive. "I'm going to do everything I can to close it," Obama told CNN's Candy Crowley in the interview.
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