President Donald Trump furthered accusations against former President Barack Obama across Twitter Tuesday morning. The POTUS has now accused Obama of causing global acts of terror by releasing detainees, as a result of attempting to shut down the Guantanamo Bay military prison. Having gained notoriety for its alleged torture practices as an interrogation tactic and for detaining suspected international terrorists, the detention camp has since lowered its number of prisoners during the Obama administration.
Trump’s latest attack on Obama follows his wiretapping allegations over the weekend.
According to the president, the former administration had the Trump Towers’ phones wiretapped during the 2016 presidential election. The serious allegation has been dismissed by the former president’s spokesperson, Kevin Lewis, as well as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Guantanamo Bay and Global Terrorism
Meanwhile, the numbers regarding how many people have joined global terror groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda are still vague up until now. A 2014 estimate by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) stated that Syria and Iraq alone amassed 20,000 to 31,000 hostiles. Additionally, a senior US military official told CNN that the US and its allies have killed an estimated total of 50,000 ISIS fighters on a global scale.
122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!
— President Trump (@POTUS) March 7, 2017
With America’s continuous battle against terrorism, the Guantanamo Bay, or GTMO, has been used to detain alleged terrorists. However, several officials have made claims that the military prison is home to inhumane torture in an effort to squeeze out information from the accused, when in fact, some inmates could be innocent.
Obama’s GTMO promise
To recall, Obama had at one point declared to close all operations run within the controversial military prison. In fact, one of his campaign promises was to eliminate all forms of torture within the US Military. The former president failed to shut down GTMO but became successful in lowering the detention center’s total population.
Before Trump assumed office earlier this year, only 41 inmates were left out of 242.
Trump’s latest tweetstorm has since been fact-checked by several publications, including The New York Times. According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, majority of the Guantanamo Bay detainees who were transferred to other countries were in fact under George W. Bush and not Obama.
