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Nuria Diaz Muñoz
By Nuria Diaz Muñoz July 7, 2023

No, Barack Obama is not being sent to Guantanamo Bay

If Your Time is short

  • There is no evidence that former President Barack Obama is being sent to Guantanamo Bay to be imprisoned. 

  • After a video was posted July 4 making the claim, a July 6 Instagram post showed Obama visiting Athens, Greece, to attend an event.

With a plotline that sounds like it could be plucked from a political intrigue novel, a Facebook video says former President Barack Obama is being sent to Guantanamo Bay to pay for his "crimes against humanity." 

"White Hat Intel! 0bama is being Sent to Gitmo," reads the caption on the 12-minute video.

The video’s narrator also makes the uncorroborated claim that one of Obama’s former bodyguards was involved in a plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump, but the effort was foiled. 

"Obama didn't set this up, Obama has been dealt with for a while ago he is paying his dues for his crimes," the narrator said. 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) 

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There is no evidence that Obama is being sent to Guantanamo Bay to be imprisoned. 

Two days after the video was posted, on July 6, Obama joined the Girls Opportunity Alliance in Athens, Greece, for a discussion about empowering girls around the world. 

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According to The New York Times’ regularly updated count, Guantanamo Bay houses 30 prisoners. The most recent detainee arrived at the Cuba prison in 2008.  

If Obama were being sent to Guantanamo or an assassination plot against Trump were unearthed, the events would draw widespread news coverage. But there’s none. 

We’ve previously debunked similar claims that President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. 

We rate the claim that Obama "is being sent to Gitmo" Pants on Fire! 

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No, Barack Obama is not being sent to Guantanamo Bay

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