Guantanamo closure recedes into distance

President Barack Obama's hopes of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility appear as far from being realised as ever in the wake of new legislation approved by Congress this week. Wednesday's approval by the Senate of an amendment banning the use of Pentagon funds for 2011 to transfer detainees at Guantanamo, the U.S. naval base on Cuba, to the United States or its territories appears to guarantee that the facility will remain open for business at least through next September. The House of Representatives, which passed a similar provision last week, is expected to quickly approve the Senate version. Despite the administration's objections, the amendment is unlikely to be vetoed by Obama. It was strongly denounced by human rights groups that have campaigned for Guantanamo's closure since it first began receiving detainees allegedly captured in what became the George W. Bush administration's "global war on terror" in 2002. At its height, it held more than 700 terrorist suspects. The facility currently holds 174 prisoners of whom 90–most of them Yemenis–have reportedly been cleared for repatriation, and 36 are due to be prosecuted in federal courts, although, with the Senate action, that plan may now be in jeopardy. The remaining 48 are being held indefinitely without trial because evidence of their past ties to terrorist groups is unlikely to be admissible in a court - in some cases, due to its acquisition by torture - and because the government believes that they would return to such activities if they were released.