Pentagon closes Guantanamo Bay facility that housed KSM, moves detainees to main site, report

The U.S. military is closing a Guantanamo Bay high-security facility to cut costs and reduce its troop presence in the military prison, resulting in the relocation of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other detainees to the main facility.

The Pentagon made the announcement Sunday about the military prison, at a U.S. Naval base in Cuba.

Maj. Gregory J. McElwain, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command, said the closure-consolidation was a "fiscally responsible decision."

McElwain did not say how much the consolidation is expected to save or what will happen to the 1,500 mostly National Guard troops serving at the facility.

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp was opened after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. President Obama was blocked by Congress in his efforts to close the facility, amid outcry that detainees were being held indefinitely without trial. President Biden has also said he wants to close the site.

Mohammed's attorney, James G. Connell III, said the military is shutting down the high-security site known as Camp 7, according to The New York Times.

Camp 7 was opened in 2006 and purportedly is where enhanced interrogation techniques including so-called "waterboarding" was used on detainees. About 40 prisoners purportedly still remain at the facility.