Politics election 2016Guantanamo Bay Guantanamo detainees

Jeb Bush: Closing Guantanamo Bay Is 'Not The Right Thing To Do'

Jeb Bush: Closing Guantanamo Bay Is 'Not The Right Thing To Do'
Igor Bobic
By 

Senior Politics Reporter, HuffPost

FILE - In this March 19, 2015 file photo, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush visits the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. In the Republican roar over Common Core, various myths are being peddled as fact. Even so, the 2016 GOP presidential prospects who are criticizing Common Core have a point _ if an overstated one _ when they dispute the notion that it is strictly a voluntary initiative that bubbled up from communities and states. In complicated but unmistakable ways, the federal government does put pressure on states to live up to the standards. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - In this March 19, 2015 file photo, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush visits the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. In the Republican roar over Common Core, various myths are being peddled as fact. Even so, the 2016 GOP presidential prospects who are criticizing Common Core have a point _ if an overstated one _ when they dispute the notion that it is strictly a voluntary initiative that bubbled up from communities and states. In complicated but unmistakable ways, the federal government does put pressure on states to live up to the standards. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said Thursday that the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ought to remain open for the foreseeable future.

"We shouldn't be closing down Guantanamo," the likely 2016 presidential contender said in a radio interview with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade, according to a tweet from TIME's Zeke Miller. "Closing it down for political purposes is not the right thing to do. Unless there is some compelling alternative, I believe we should stay the course," he added.

His brother, former President George W. Bush, opened the facility in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. But even he later called for its closure.

"I very much would like to end Guantanamo; I very much would like to get people to a court," then-president Bush said in 2006.

President Barack Obama recently said one of his biggest regrets was not closing the facility as soon as he stepped into the Oval Office.

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