Welcome to "Close Guantánamo"

Welcome to the Close Guantánamo website.

Donations to support the work of the Close Guantánamo campaign in 2025 are welcome and are greatly encouraged, as we continue our work in opposition to Donald Trump, a longtime supporter of the existence "war on terror" prison, who is now threatening, as part of a vile and racist "war" on undocumented migrants in the U.S., to expand a neighbouring migrant detention facility to hold up to 30,000 migrants. Please click on the "Donate" button below to pay via PayPal.

If you can make a regular monthly donation, please tick the box marked, "Make this a monthly donation," and fill in the amount you wish to donate every month.

For the last 13 years, the Close Guantánamo campaign, with your support, has engaged in a ceaseless struggle to break through the amnesia that generally envelops the prison at Guantánamo Bay, profiling the men held, calling for the release of those who have never been charged with crimes, and who, as a result, are held indefinitely without charge or trial, calling for justice for those who have been charged, but in the broken military commission trial system, and also calling for the closure of the entire facility.

Since 2018, our efforts to keep shining a light on Guantánamo have involved a popular photo campaign, in which our supporters take photos with posters marking every 100 days of Guantánamo’s existence, via our Gitmo Clock initiative, which counts in real time how long Guantánamo has been open.

We received a hugely enthusiastic response to our latest poster, marking 8,400 days of the prison’s existence on January 9, with many supporters also joining us just two days later, on January 11, the 23rd anniversary of the opening of the prison. The Gitmo Clock has just been updated, now calling — again — on Donald Trump to close it, and new posters have also been made available for the year to come — for 8,500 days on April 19, 8,600 days on July 28, 8,700 days on November 5, and 8,767 days on January 11, 2026.

For the last two years, initiated by our co-founder Andy Worthington, monthly coordinated global vigils — the "First Wednesday" vigils — have also taken place across the U.S., and in London, Brussels and Mexico City, calling for the prison’s closure, and specifically focusing on the men approved for release but still held. There was a wonderful turnout for the latest vigils, moved to Saturday January 11 to mark the anniversary, and we are returning to our "First Wednesday" slot this Wednesday, February 5, and continuing throughout 2025. See the poster below for more information.

Thanks to everyone’s efforts, the Biden administration, in its last months, arranged for the release of 13 of the 16 men who had long been approved for release — a Kenyan, a Tunisian, and eleven Yemenis, who couldn’t be sent home because U.S. law prevents their repatriation, who were resettled in Oman on January 6. Two other men, convicted via pleas deals in the military commissions, were sent back to Malaysia, reducing the prison’s population to just 15 men as Biden left office.

Both of our co-founders, Andy and the attorney Tom Wilner, have also, on an annual basis, taken part in panel discussions about Guantánamo, on or around the anniversary of its opening, hosted by the New America think-tank in Washington, D.C., attended by policymakers and representatives of all manner of organizations concerned with the affairs of government.

On January 14, with the academic Karen Greenberg (also a regular attendee over the years), we met to discuss Guantánamo’s last days under Biden, and its future under Donald Trump (again), with Peter Bergen as the moderator. We’re pleased to be posting that video below, via YouTube, and we hope that you have time to watch it.

We’d also like to alert you to two other interviews that Andy undertook to mark the 23rd anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo on January 11 — a half-hour interview with the great peace activist David Swanson for his Talk World Radio show, and a one-hour interview with the activist Margaret Flowers for her "Clearing the FOG" podcast on Popular Resistance.

Unfortunately, almost as soon as Donald Trump took office for the second time, he launched a blizzard of hateful executive orders, including many aimed at the 13.3 million undocumented migrants in the U.S., who he has sweepingly mischaracterized as posing a collective threat to the US, and is seeking to deport in huge numbers. As part of this vile policy, he announced, in an executive order on January 29, a plan to expand an existing migrant detention facility within the naval base where the "war on terror" prison is located, to hold up to 30,000 migrants he intends to deport.

For more on this, please see Andy’s new article, Monthly Close Guantánamo Vigils Resume Amidst Trump’s Chilling Promise to Expand a Neighboring Facility to Hold 30,000 Migrants, and please note that, as shown in the poster for the vigils above, we will be adding our outrage about this proposal to the demands for the closure of the "war on terror" prison at our monthly vigils.

Who we are and why we care

We are a group of lawyers, journalists, retired military personnel and concerned citizens seeking to close the "war on terror" prison at Guantánamo Bay, where 15 men are still held, three unanimously approved for release by high-level government review processes, and three still held as "forever prisoners," never charged with a crime.

January 11, 2025 marked the 23rd anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, and the start of its 24th year of operations. This is an anniversary that should never have come to pass.

The prison at Guantánamo Bay is an abominable experiment in indefinite detention, which poisons America's claim to be a nation that believes in justice. Three men are still held despite being long approved for release, including one man approved for release 15 years ago.

Just nine men are facing or have faced trials, while the others (three men in total, including Abu Zubaydah, the first victim of the CIA's post-9/11 torture program) have been aptly described as "forever prisoners," persistently recommended for ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial by the PRBs. Check out our full list of the PRBs here, and please also feel free to look at our full prisoner list, identifying the 15 men still held, and incorporating the decisions about whether they should be freed, tried or held indefinitely.

Please encourage Donald Trump and your Senators and Representatives to support our call to close the prison. Let them know that, while the prison remains open, it undermines America's values and national security. You can send a message to the White House here, and you can find your Senators here, and your Representatives here.

Join us now to help end this injustice and restore the rule of law. We call on Donald Trump to close Guantánamo, and will continue to do so until it is closed for good. Your voice matters.

Thank you for your commitment and support, and thank you for your interest in bringing this dark chapter in modern U.S. history to an end. Please see our mission statement for a more detailed analysis of why Guantánamo must be closed, and to see the list of prominent individuals and organizations who have signed it.