US Vice President Joe Biden says he expects the notorious American military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, cease operations before President Barack Obama’s leaves the White House.
“That is my hope and expectation,” Biden told a news conference in Sweden on Thursday.
Obama and key officials within his administration have so far failed to shutter the detention facility and fulfill one of the iconic campaign pledges that the president made during his first presidential campaign in 2008.
Closing down the facility requires bringing dozens of remaining inmates to maximum-security prisons inside the US, a solution Congress has long blocked.
Although Obama can still theoretically override the ban using his powers as the commander-in-chief, White House lawyers and other officials think the president has not been able to develop the legal position or the political sales pitch required to do so.
