Somali detainees at Guantanamo Bay Somali detainees at Guantanamo Bay There were a total of four Somali detainees in Guantanamo of a total of 778 detainees that have been held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba since the camps opened on January 11, 2002. The camp population peaked in 2004 at approximately 660. Only nineteen new suspects, all "high value detainees" have been transferred there since the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush. As of January 2008 the camp population stand at approximately 285. When the DoD was forced to publish its first official list of detainees, on May 15,
Guantanamo Bay detention camp ever closing Guantanamo Bay, to which he replied he did. Some blamed Congress for the delay in closing the detention camp, while others blamed the president. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, "Obviously Congress has taken a number of steps to prevent the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, but the President still believes it's in our national security interest and will keep trying". In the same interview, however, senior ACLU attorney Zachary Katznelson argued Obama had "enough control and power that he [could have gotten those] men out today if he [had] the political