GTMO: The Endless Tug-Of-War Between Expansion and Closure
Do The Competing Executive Orders Prove COG?
Over the past 25 years, GTMO has been at the center of a unique struggle. For some Presidents, the closure of GTMO was publicly communicated as a top-priority so executive orders were penned to accomplish this. For others, the expansion of GTMO was publicly communicated as a top priority so executive orders were signed to accomplish this. So what exactly are Americans supposed to take away from all of this political theater surrounding GTMO?
On 1/29/25, President Donald J. Trump put everyone on notice with this rather scintillating executive order, expanding the migrant operations center at GTMO.
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO (/ˈɡɪtmoʊ/ GIT-moh), GITMO (/ˈɡɪtmoʊ/ GIT-moh), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
To be perfectly clear, GTMO’s nickname is NOT “Camp Justice,” per se. However, “Camp Justice” is the name given to the portion of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base where the Guantanamo military commissions are held. “Camp Justice” has been described as a portable, tent city that can be erected and taken down. It is like a temporary encampment for military tribunals.
The U.S. Office of Military Commissions manages Camp Justice, which is located at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Camp Justice is the name of the tent city where attorneys, reporters, and security guards stay during trials.
Much like the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey world-famous traveling circus, which operated from 1871 - 2017, we suspect that military tribunals could one day claim to be "The Greatest Show on Earth.” Our team prefers the “The Greatest Show on Dirt,” but that is just a matter of opinion.
Our team did find it to be quite interesting that the pictures that Catherine Herridge shared from GTMO in late January were entitled “Camp Justice: Day 8” and showed her pictured in front of a Camp Justice sign near a flag pole.
Herridge reported at that time that millions of dollars are spent annually on military trials.
Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are spent every year on ongoing military trials.
Interesting statement huh? Ongoing military trials?
Our team decided to pause and reflect on the series of presidential executive orders involving GTMO over the last 15 years to gain some perspective. At the risk of over simplifying a rather complex subject, the executive orders involving GTMO have suggested an ongoing struggle between the expansion of GTMO and the closure of GTMO. More plainly stated, there has been an ongoing tug-of-war over GTMO, at least politically speaking, for several years.
In 2009, President Barack H. Obama ordered the closure of GTMO detention facilities with Executive Order 13492. This EO was titled “Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities.” It was signed on 1/22/2009, and required that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within 1 year, or no later than 1/22/2010.
This EO was signed at the same time as Executive Order 13493, in which Obama ordered the identification of alternative venues for the detainees at GTMO. If you want proof of Continuity of Government operations, here it is. President Barack H. Obama served as POTUS for 7 years, and this closure of the GTMO detention facilities never happened. How could this be? Orders are orders, aren’t they?
In January of 2018, President Donald J. Trump reversed Obama’s EO 13492 by issuing Executive Order 13823 that not only kept the detention facilities open at Guantanamo Bay, but it also opened the door to the expansion of GTMO.
This executive order (13823) rescinds a section of a previous executive order (13492) ordering the closing of the detention facilities at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), and affirms that the United States maintains the option to detain additional enemy combatants at GTMO when necessary.
Do you want proof that Donald J. Trump is the tip of the COG spear, so to speak?
These aerial view photos have been shared often on social media during Trump’s first term, depicting what would appear to be the “before” and “after” construction expansion images at GTMO.
Even if these randomly gathered aerial photos are real and depict things accurately, all one can conclude is that the capacity of the GTMO base may have expanded substantially during Trump’s first administration. It has been difficult to confirm sources for these pictures so the topic remains somewhat open ended and inconclusive.
So what did autopen driven Joseph R. Biden do in regards to EOs involving GTMO? This is where it gets interesting. In fact, this could potentially be the most convincing proof of continuity of government (COG) military operations, in our team’s humble opinion.
President Joseph R. Biden never reversed Trump’s EO 13823. Think logically. The only way this course of action, or lack thereof, makes any sense is if we are operating under COG. If Obama wanted GTMO closed and Biden campaigned on a promise to close GTMO, there is absolutely no way that Biden would have allowed GTMO expansion projects to continue. Several sources, including Reuters, reported on Biden’s desire to close the detention center at GTMO during the 2020 race.
Biden’s campaign said during the 2020 race that he continued to support closing the (GTMO) detention center but did not say how he would do it.
The Associated Press reported this on 1/21/21, just hours after Biden was inaugurated.
Gen. Lloyd Austin, Biden’s nominee to be secretary of defense, this week reaffirmed the intention to close Guantanamo to the Senate committee considering his nomination.
Gen. Lloyd Austin, was Biden’s nominee at the time for Defense Secretary. Austin told the Senate that he thought it was time for the detention facility at Guantánamo to close its doors and would work to develop a path forward to closure.
So let’s review quickly. We have the President of the United States (Biden) campaigning on closing the GTMO detention facility in 2020. We have his Secretary of Defense (Austin) testifying in front of Senate hearings in January 2021 that he would be pursuing a path that led to the closure of the GTMO detention facility. Despite this, nothing happened from 2021-2024 to reverse Trump’s Executive Order 13823. Again, this could potentially be the most convincing proof of a COG military operation, in our team’s humble opinion.
Where there is silence, there is the story.
And what has happened since Trump’s most recent executive order in 2025? General MCNews and a few other sources have reported that GTMO facility expansion is moving forward at a rampant pace with 175 new structures allegedly erected in February 2025.
At the end of the day, GTMO is a military prison that is used to detain terrorism suspects and illegal enemy combatants. In addition, Camp Justice is where military commissions or military tribunals are held.
Is justice about to be served up in a big and bad way at GTMO?
The “spa” certainly does appear to be heating up and so does the panic in DC.
This concludes part of 2 of The Fruited Plain’s 3-part introductory series on GTMO.
