Jeff Sessions's Review of Gitmo Makes It Sound Like a Hotel, Not a Prison

The new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, says he considers Guantanamo Bay a "very fine place." He used the odd language — which made Gitmo sound more like a prime spot to Summer than a detention camp where well-documented human rights abuses have taken place — during an interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on March 9. In the conversation, Sessions went on to declare that the high-security prison is a "perfectly acceptable place" for captured terrorists to be imprisoned.

"I've been there a number of times as a senator, and it's just a very fine place for holding these kind of dangerous criminals," Sessions told Hewitt. "We've spent a lot of money fixing it up. And I'm inclined to the view that it remains a perfectly acceptable place."

Guantanamo Bay has long been a contested facility, if only because detaining terrorists without trial indefinitely presents some legal gray area. President Barack Obama attempted to close the Cuban military outpost, and while he did manage to transfer all but 41 of the roughly 780 detainees, ultimately, the prison remains open.

And, as it turns out, the prison's operations are likely to be expanded in the Trump administration. Though Donald Trump himself has already pledged to send captured ISIS terrorists to Guantanamo, Sessions reiterated Trump's intention during the interview. The administration is reportedly in the process of an executive order rewriting the language to allow the United States government to detain suspected ISIS operatives in Guantanamo.

"There's plenty of space," Sessions said. "We are well equipped for it. It's a perfect place for it. Eventually, this will be decided by the military rather than the Justice Department. But I see no legal problem whatsoever with doing that."

Many legal experts disagree and contend that sending operatives of the Islamic State to Guantanamo would present a potential quagmire, since the military statute that allows the United States to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely only pertains to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.