"Some of these individuals cannot be effectively prosecuted in our [US] criminal justice system and it means that these individuals will be subject to a law of war detention," Earnest stated on Wednesday.
The Obama administration’s plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay unveiled on Tuesday suggests 13 possible prisons in the United States where a group of about 60 detainees could be transferred, after others are cleared for release and sent to other countries.
The detention facility has been notorious for human rights abuse and denying detainees due process rights typically afforded in the United States to individuals charged with a crime.
Advocacy group Close Guantanamo co-founder Andy Worthington told Sputnik after Obama’s plan was released that there was "no way" Washington could prevent the detainees from enjoying full constitutional rights in the United States.
On Tuesday, UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in a statement that all Guantanamo detainees should either be transferred to prisons in the United States or to other countries where fair trials before civilian courts and due process can be provided.
The majority of the detainees were sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in the aftermath of the US declaration of a global War on Terror. According to a 2015 Senate Intelligence report, terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo Bay were subjected to torture under a Central Intelligence Agency program that reportedly ended in 2006.
