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White House concedes it won’t close Guantanamo after all

FILE - In this Feb. 2, 2002 file photo, a detainee from Afghanistan is carried on a stretcher before being interrogated by military officials at the detention facility Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. The White House said Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017 that the detention center will still be open when President Barack Obama leaves office, conceding that a core campaign promise will go unfulfilled. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 2, 2002 file photo, a detainee from Afghanistan is carried on a stretcher before being interrogated by military officials at the detention facility Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. The White House said Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017 that the detention center will still be open when President Barack Obama leaves office, conceding that a core campaign promise will go unfulfilled. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File) FILE - In this Feb. 2, 2002 file photo, a detainee from Afghanistan is carried on a stretcher before being interrogated by military officials at the detention facility Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. The White House said Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017 that the detention center will still be open when President Barack Obama leaves office, conceding that a core campaign promise will go unfulfilled. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

By Associated Press 3 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House said Tuesday that the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba will still be open when President Barack Obama leaves office, conceding that a core campaign promise will go unfulfilled.

Administration officials had long insisted that the president was continuing to work toward closing the facility even when it became obvious that it would no longer be possible for practical reasons before President-elect Donald Trump takes office Friday.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that the administration determined it wouldn’t happen when they realized they did not have enough time left to comply with the 30-day deadline for notifying Congress in advance of a detainee transfer.

“At this time, I don’t anticipate that we will succeed in that goal of closing the prison,” Earnest said. “But it’s not for a lack of trying, I assure you.”

Over the weekend, the U.S. transferred 10 low-level detainees from Guantanamo to Oman. That lowered the number of detainees to 45, with a few more releases expected in the administration’s final days.