The Congress would have the ability to review the White House’s plan for closing the prison under the National Defense Authorization Act. Questions still remain as to whether or not Congress will be able to approve any plan given many members’ opposition to closing the prison. There are currently 116 prisoners left in Guantanamo Bay prison, where about 800 were detained. The President has the executive authority to make detainee transfers happen without Congress. The prison camp was established to detain extraordinarily dangerous persons, to interrogate detainees in an optimal setting, and to prosecute detainees for war crimes. The Bush administration asserted that detainees were not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva Conventions but on 7 July 2006, the Department of Defense issued an internal memo stating that detainees would, in the future, be entitled to protection under Common Article 3. In this prison had been reported abuse and torture and since 2006 the United Nations called to be closed.
