Guantanamo Bay was built nearly 18 years ago on a United States naval base in Cuba to house the world’s most notorious suspected terrorists and over the years it has grown into the most expensive prison on earth.
On Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attack, alone the U.S. government has spent over $161 million just to keep a roof over his head.
In 2003, Mohammed was captured and later confessed to being the mastermind behind several of the most deadly terror attacks in previous decades, most notably the attacks that took place on September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 innocent Americans lost their lives.
Mohammed’s death penalty trial was originally set for January 11, 2021, but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and up until Saturday, the suspected terrorist was set to receive a vaccine so that when the time came he could be tried and, if convicted, put to death for his heinous crimes.
Since its inception the military prison has cost U.S. taxpayers over $6 billion, included in that total are charter planes that carry prisoners to and from the island, hundreds of thousands’ worth of government gadgets that are destroyed every year, half a million-dollar salaries for Pentagon-funded defense attorneys, and tens of millions’ in legal costs even though Guantanamo has only ever seen one conviction.
According to the New York Times, the tally comes to $13 million per prisoner, per year.
There have only been around 770 foreign men and boys to have been held as prisoners at Guantanamo, with the prison population hitting an all-time high of 677 in 2003.
There have been no new prisoners to arrive at the island since 2008.
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