Rear Adm. John C. Ring at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, April 17, 2019. Ring, the commander of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, has been fired following an investigation, the United States Southern Command said on April 28.DOUG MILLS/The New York Times News Service
The commander of the prison at Guantánamo Bay has been fired seven weeks before he was to leave the job.
Adm. Craig S. Faller relieved Rear Adm. John C. Ring for a “loss of confidence in his ability” to lead, the U.S. Southern Command said Sunday in a brief statement. Ring’s deputy, Brig. Gen. John F. Hussey, is now the acting commander.
Col. Amanda Azubuike, a spokeswoman for Southern Command, known as SOUTHCOM, which oversees the prison, said the decision to remove Ring had nothing to do with a recent news media visit he hosted there. She said only that he was let go after a month-long investigation that was opened in March.
Faller, the leader of Southern Command, and Ring met Saturday at the command’s headquarters in Doral, Florida, where Faller “personally informed” Ring that he was being fired. Ring “will be temporarily assigned duties elsewhere” in Southern Command, Azubuike said.
Ring, a former commander of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, was the 18th leader of the prison operations that started in January 2002. He began that assignment in April 2018 and was due to be replaced in a routine rotation the week of June 11.
“The vast majority of commanders complete their assigned tours with distinction,” Azubuike said. “When they fall short, we hold our leaders accountable, which reflects the importance we place on the public’s trust and confidence in our military leaders.”
At Guantánamo, Ring was responsible for 40 detainees and a staff of 1,800 troops and civilian employees. Soon after taking charge, he became an outspoken advocate of the need to build a new prison for 15 men who had been held by the CIA before their 2006 transfer to U.S. military custody.
In 2013 and 2014, Gen. John F. Kelly, a former SOUTHCOM leader who would become President Donald Trump’s first homeland security secretary and second chief of staff, had unsuccessfully lobbied Congress for money to replace the prison.
Ring renewed that effort in June, telling reporters that the top-secret prison where the military segregates high-value detainees, called Camp 7, would become inadequate as the prisoners aged. Camp 7 houses Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and other men the CIA previously held as leaders, deputies or foot soldiers of al-Qaida or other extremist groups.