US attorney general visits Guantanamo detention facility

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By CGTN America

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein have visited the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for the first time since taking up their roles.

This visit comes just over six months into the Trump administration.

“Keeping this country safe from terrorists is the highest priority of the Trump administration,” Department of Justice Spokesman Ian Prior said in a statement when asked about the Guantanamo visit.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers remarks at a summit on crime reduction and public safety in Bethesda, Maryland, US on June 20, 2017. /VCG Photo

“Recent attacks in Europe and elsewhere confirm that the threat to our nation is immediate and real, and it remains essential that we use every lawful tool available to prevent as many attacks as possible,” he added.

Sessions has been vocal about his approval of Guantanamo Bay’s detention facility, which the previous administration of Barack Obama vowed to shut down.

During a March 2017 interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, the attorney general was asked about the closure of Guantanamo, saying, “I have not favored that.”

“It’s just a very fine place for holding these kind of dangerous criminals. We’ve spent a lot of money fixing it up. And I’m inclined to the view that it remains a perfectly acceptable place. And I think (in) fact that a lot of the criticisms have just been totally exaggerated,” Sessions said during the interview.

“It is important for the Department of Justice to have an up-to-date understanding of current operations,” Prior said, adding that “the purpose of the trip is to gain that understanding by meeting with the people on the ground who are leading our government-wide efforts” at Guantanamo.

The US detention facility opened on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in January 2002 to hold and interrogate suspected enemy combatants.

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