Chicago Tribune

Editorial: Infamy taints Guantanamo’s 20-year history. It’s past time to shut it down

People walk past a guard tower outside the fencing of Camp 5 at the US Military's Prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on Jan. 26, 2017.

Just two days after taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama ordered the shutdown of Guantanamo. The detention compound at the U.S. naval base on the southern coast of Cuba was built to hold militants captured in the course of the post-9/11 war on terror. But by the time of Obama’s ascent to the White House, Guantanamo had become synonymous with hypocrisy.

America insisted that other nations treat detainees with dignity, and yet secretly tortured and mistreated individuals it had in custody at Guantanamo,

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