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Guantanamo Bay: Trump administration officials signal intent to refill Cuban prison with 'bad dudes' Guantanamo Bay: Trump administration officials signal intent to refill Cuban prison with 'bad dudes'
(about 3 hours later)
Plans appear to be underway to begin re-using the Guantanamo Bay prison camp as a facility for detainees. Plans appear to be under way to begin fulfilling Donald Trump’s promise to pack US’s Guantanamo Bay prison with “bad dudes”.
During his election campaigning, Donald Trump said he would “load it up with some bad dudes”.  During his election campaign last year, Mr Trump said he would “load it up” when he became president. Last week US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy Rod Rosenstein visited the detention camp in Cuba, along with National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, to gain “an up-to-date understanding of current operations”, the Justice Department said.
His Attorney General Jeff Sessions paid a visit to the prison last week for an update on the detention camp, signalling that the camp could once again be used/  Mr Sessions has been in favour of continued use of Guantanamo since his days as an Alabama senator. He told ABC News it was a “very fine place for holding these kind of dangerous criminals”.
Mr Sessions visited the military detention facility in Cuba with his deputy Rod Rosenstein and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, to gain "an up-to-date understanding of current operations," Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said. “We’ve spent a lot of money fixing it up,” Mr Sessions said in a separate interview with the Salem Radio Network. “And I’m inclined to the view that it remains a perfectly acceptable place. And I think the fact is that a lot of the criticisms have just been totally exaggerated.”
Mr Sessions has been in favour of continued use of Guantanamo since his days as an Alabama senator, describing it as a "very fine place for holding these kind of dangerous criminals," in an ABC News report last week. Former detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi wrote a memoir about his time in the prison camp, describing being sexually assaulted by women interrogators, blindfolded, beaten, shackled and deprived of water. Another inmate, Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, was awarded a settlement rumoured to be around $8m (£6.2m). A 2010 Supreme Court of Canada ruling found that Canadian officials violated his rights when they interrogated him at the prison.
"We've spent a lot of money fixing it up," Mr Sessions said in a separate interview with the Salem Radio Network. "And I'm inclined to the view that it remains a perfectly acceptable place. And I think the fact is that a lot of the criticisms have just been totally exaggerated." Guantanamo Bay opened as a detention facility in 2002 and was used to hold foreign terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks and the US invasion of Afghanistan. The detainee population is down to around 41 men. At its height, nearly 800 prisoners were kept here.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi wrote a memoir about his time in the prison camp, describing being sexually assaulted by women interrogators, blindfolded, beaten, shackled and deprived of water. Former President Barack Obama had signed an executive order for the prison camp to be shut down, arguing it was being used a recruitment ground for terrorist groups. Plans to revoke Mr Obama’s reforms have strong support from David Rivkin, a fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies who served under Presidents Reagan and George HW Bush in the White House counsel’s office and the Justice Department.  “We have taken off the table the silly ideas that the previous administration had about Guantanamo,” he told Washington newspaper The Hill. 
Former Guantanamo Bay inmate, and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, was also awarded a settlement rumoured to be around $US 8 million (£6.2m). A 2010 Supreme Court of Canada ruling found that Canadian officials violated his rights at the US base in Cuba.
Guantanamo Bay opened as a detention facility in 2002 and was used to hold foreign terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks and invasion of Afghanistan. The detainee population is down to around 41 men. At its height, nearly 800 prisoners were kept here.
Former President Barack Obama had signed an executive order for the prison camp to be shut down, arguing it was being used a recruitment ground for terrorist groups.
Plans to revoke Mr Obama’s reforms have strong support from David Rivkin, a fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies who served under Presidents Reagan and George H W. Bush in the White House counsel’s office and the Justice Department.  “We have taken off the table the silly ideas that the previous administration had about Guantanamo,” he told The Hill.