Should the Guantanamo prison be closed?

• Author: Feinstein, Dianne
• Position: Debate - Essay

Since his first day in the White House, back in January 2009, President Obama has sought to close the prison for terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, which opened in 2002. Many in Congress have vehemently opposed the idea. With less than a year left in office, Obama is renewing his efforts: In February, he sent Congress a plan that calls for transferring about 60 of the most dangerous detainees to American prisons; the remaining 30 or so would be sent to other countries. Lawmakers remain divided about whether it's safe to close the detention facility--and what the impact is of keeping it open.

YES Instead of blocking President Obama's efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Congress should be working with him to finally shut it down. This prison has cost us billions and Is a real threat to our national security.

Simply put, Guantanamo is one of the best propaganda tools that terrorists have today. Our enemies use it to justify terrorism and recruit others to carry out violent jihad, and our allies continue to criticize it as a violation of the rule of law. It's no coincidence that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, dresses its victims in the same orange prisoner suits used in Guantanamo before conducting their ghastly beheadings.

Guantanamo is also a huge drain on taxpayer dollars. It's hard to justify spending more than $4.89 million per detainee annually when it costs just $73,624 to hold an Inmate in the so-called Supermax federal penitentiary in Colorado.

So what have we achieved by spending $445 million a year to run Guantanamo? During President George W. Bush's administration, 779 people were brought to Guantanamo, all without charge. Over time, we've learned that many were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and shouldn't have been detained in the first place.

Most detainees--532 to be exact--were released by the Bush administration. Of the 91 detainees who remain, only about 10 have been convicted or charged with a crime In the military commissions. Shockingly, the five co-conspirators charged with planning the 9/11 attacks have still not gone to trial, despite the filing of charges years ago. Contrast that with the record of the federal criminal courts: Between Sept. 11,2001, and the end of 2014, civilian courts prosecuted 580 terrorism-related cases, with a conviction rate of about 90 percent.

We need to bring detainees to the U.S., where we can hold them securely for as long as...