US Announces Major Transfer of Guantanamo Inmates
FILE - The sun rises over the Guantanamo detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, May 13, 2009.
Fifteen prisoners from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been released to the United Arab Emirates in the largest transfer of detainees during the Obama administration.
The release of 12 Yemeni nationals and three Afghans comes amid a renewed push to whittle down the number of detainees at Guantanamo.
The Pentagon says 61 detainees remain at Guantanamo.
President Barack Obama is facing a looming deadline to close the prison before he leaves office as he promised to do when he was first elected.
But he faces opposition from many Republican lawmakers as well as some fellow Democrats.
"I think we are at an extremely dangerous point where there is a significant possibility this is going to remain open as a permanent offshore prison to hold people, practically until they die," said Naureen Shah, Amnesty International's U.S. director for security and human rights.
Shah added that keeping Guantanamo open gave cover to foreign governments to ignore international human rights.
"It weakens the U.S. government's hand in arguing against torture and indefinite detention," she said.
One of the detainees who was transferred is an Afghan national, identified as Obaidullah, who has spent more than 13 years at Guantanamo. He had been accused of hiding and storing mines to be used against American forces in Afghanistan.
"The continued operation of the detention facility weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and emboldening violent extremists," Lee Wolosky, the State Department's special envoy for closing the Guantanamo detention center, said.
VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report. Some information from Reuters was also used
US Senator: Pentagon Report Shows Need for Guantanamo Prison
A report giving a brief synopsis of each of the more than 100 detainees still being held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was released Wednesday by a critic of the Obama administration's plan to close the detention center.The Pentagon gave the report to Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who posted it online Wednesday.The information in…
US Transfers Two More Terrorist Suspects from Guantanamo
The U.S. Defense Department says it has transferred two detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the custody of the Serbian government. The U.S. State Department said both detainees, Tajik national Muhammadi Davlatov and Yemeni national Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi, were unanimously approved for transfer by six U.S. government departments and agencies. Authorities say the two men were at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for about 14 years. Their…
US Transfers Yemeni Terror Suspect from Guantanamo
The U.S. Defense Department says it has transferred a Yemeni terror suspect from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the custody of the Italian government. A statement Sunday said the transfer of Fayiz Ahmad Yahia Suleiman was approved unanimously by the Guantanamo Review Task Force after a…
US Transfers Yemeni Guantanamo Bay Detainee to Montenegro
The U.S. military has announced the transfer of a Yemeni man from its detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Montenegro. The transfer of Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi leaves 79 people detained at Guantanamo where nearly 800 people have been held at some point since it opened in early 2002. Pentagon documents describe Al Rahabi as a member of al-Qaida who was once a bodyguard to the group's late leader Osama bin Laden and took part in fighting…