Guantánamo Bay at 20: why have attempts to close the prison failed?

The US prison in Cuba has been beset by allegations of torture since it was set up 20 years ago. But despite all the promises to close it down, it remains operational with no end in sight, says Julian Borger The first prisoners arrived at the newly built Camp X-Ray prison at the US naval base in Cuba's Guantánamo Bay on 11 January 2002. It was a makeshift jail formed of chain-link cages and barbed-wire fences, watched over by snipers in plywood guard towers. It was never intended to be permanen...