10 Things You Need to Know About Guantanamo Bay

On Tuesday, President Obama made good on his campaign promise to do everything in his power to close Guantanamo Bay, issuing a full-scale, Pentagon-backed plan to Congress.

Republican lawmakers have already pushed back, claiming that closing Gitmo in the middle of a war with radical Islam compromises national security.

For years, Gitmo has served as a processing center for some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists, but how much do we actually know about the controversial detention facility?

Here are 10 things you need to know about Guantanamo Bay:

1. After the tragedy of September 11, President George W. Bush authorized the use of Guantánamo Bay, arguing that detainees housed outside of U.S. soil were not subject to the legal protections covered by the Constitution. Instead, the administration granted detainees the legal status of “enemy combatants.” In effect, some “enemy combatants” could be detained indefinitely without access to counsel.

2. The first detainees arrived at a temporary detention center called Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay US naval base in Cuba on January 11, 2002 . The 20 prisoners were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan. On April 22, 2002, Camp X-Ray officially closed and all prisoners were transferred to a permanent detainee facility called Camp Delta.

3. On January 28, 2004, the Supreme Court challenged the Bush administration’s authority to strip “enemy combatants” of all Constitutional rights. While the Court ruled that detainees have some rights, it left open how these these rights would be exercised. The decision had little effect on the ground, but set a precedent that the executive office’s power is not absolute in Guantanamo Bay.

4. On June 29, 2006, the Supreme Court limited the power of the executive even further. In the famous case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Court ruled 5-3 that prisoners of war or “enemy combatants” could not be tried in military commissions that stripped them of rights granted in the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions.

5. On September 6, 2006, “President Bush acknowledges that the CIA has held suspected terrorists in secret prisons overseas. He announces the transfer of 14 captured al Qaeda operatives, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin al Shibh, and Abu Zubaydah, to Gitmo,” according to CNN. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed became perhaps the most high-value detainee housed at Gitmo.

6. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed explicitly confessed to orchestrating 9/11 at a military trial on March 15, 2007. The Bush administration would later argue that “enhanced interrogation techniques” prompted the confession.

7. On June 12, 2008, the Supreme Court expanded the rights of enemy combatants even further. In a narrow 5-4 ruling, the Court ruled that Gitmo detainees had a constitutional right to challenge their detention in U.S. federal court.

8. President Obama signed an executive order to close Guantánamo Bay on January 22, 2009. The president demanded that Gitmo close by 2010. Guantanamo Bay is still open to this day.

9. In May of 2013, several Gitmo detainees began a hunger-strike. Military officer were required to force-feed the prisoners. One year later, President Obama began releasing detainees to countries like Kuwait, Uruguay, and Qatar. The Obama administration is continuing to release detainees through 2016.

10. Today, roughly 100 men still remain in Gitmo. President Obama plans on transferring the remaining prisoners to maximum security federal prison on U.S. soil or releasing them to Arab countries.