Individuals stroll previous a guard tower outdoors the fencing of Camp 5 on the the U.S. army’s jail in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 26, 2017.
Thomas Watkins/AFP through Getty Pictures
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Thomas Watkins/AFP through Getty Pictures
In essentially the most dramatic step in years to scale back the inhabitants on the U.S. army jail in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the Biden administration has transferred 11 Yemeni detainees to Oman, which has agreed to assist resettle them and supply safety monitoring.
The entire males, who had been captured within the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terror assaults, had been held for greater than twenty years with out being charged or placed on trial. All of them had been authorised for switch by nationwide safety officers greater than two years in the past and typically lengthy earlier than that — one had been cleared for switch since 2010 — but had remained behind bars resulting from political and diplomatic components.
Their launch leaves simply 15 prisoners at Guantánamo, chopping the variety of inmates almost in half.
Monday’s transfers had been initially scheduled to occur in October 2023, however had been halted on the final minute resulting from issues in Congress about instability within the Center East following the Hamas assault on Israel.
That the plan was resurrected throughout President Biden’s last two weeks in workplace indicators a last-ditch effort by his administration to shrink Guantánamo’s prisoner inhabitants and get nearer to his objective of making an attempt to shut the power. In current weeks, the U.S. has transferred 4 different Guantánamo inmates — a Kenyan, a Tunisian and two Malaysians — and is making ready for the switch of no less than yet another, an Iraqi.
That flurry of exercise is motivated by the belief that Guantánamo transfers could cease as soon as Donald Trump returns to the White Home. Trump beforehand vowed to maintain Guantánamo open and “load it up with some bad dudes,” though he didn’t ship any prisoners there. Regardless of its late push, the Biden administration is unlikely to have the ability to shut Guantanamo’s jail and courtroom earlier than Trump takes workplace.
The switch of the 11 Yemenis was the results of prolonged and sophisticated diplomatic negotiations. That they had remained imprisoned regardless of being eligible for launch as a result of they had been legally prohibited from returning to Yemen, a failed state deemed extremely unstable. That meant the U.S. confronted the complicated problem of discovering one other nation or international locations to take them. Oman, a U.S. ally, has accepted no less than 30 different Guantánamo prisoners prior to now.
In line with U.S. Protection Division information, all of the Yemeni males are former al-Qaeda members, though a lot of them dispute the U.S. accounts of their backgrounds. Earlier than arriving at Guantánamo between 2002 and 2004, a number of had been held at secret abroad CIA prisons often known as black websites, the place torture was frequent.
Finally, the U.S. authorities decided they not posed a major sufficient risk to justify their continued imprisonment. Nonetheless, a number of of the transfers are contingent upon “robust” safety assurances from Oman, equivalent to monitoring, journey restrictions and “integration support.” Oman has stated it is going to assist the boys discover housing, jobs and different assist programs geared toward letting them rebuild their lives, and in some circumstances will reunite them with members of the family.
Three different Guantánamo inmates — a Libyan, a Somalian and a stateless Rohingya — have been authorised for switch however stay imprisoned. The Libyan and Somalian can’t be returned to their homelands as a result of these international locations, like Yemen, are on Congress’s no-transfer listing resulting from safety issues, so the U.S. should discover different international locations through which to resettle them.
The Iraqi prisoner whose switch is within the works has pleaded responsible to struggle crimes prices and the U.S. needs to ship him to a jail in Iraq. Nonetheless, the person lately filed a federal lawsuit in search of to cease his switch as a result of he says the Iraqi jail might topic him to abuse and insufficient medical care; he has a disabling backbone situation.
The U.S. jail and army courtroom at Guantánamo had been set as much as home and prosecute suspected international terrorists after the 9/11 assaults. The primary prisoners arrived in January 2002 and about 780 detainees finally handed by means of the power, most of them by no means charged but held for years. Guantánamo’s supporters say it’s a safety necessity. Critics name it an ethical stain on America.
Along with quelling human rights complaints, transferring prisoners to different international locations represents an enormous monetary financial savings to the U.S., which spends greater than a half-billion {dollars} a yr on Guantánamo’s courtroom and jail. Every inmate held there prices American taxpayers an estimated $15 million a yr, in comparison with about $80,000 yearly per inmate at a U.S. supermax facility.
Nonetheless, some members of Congress, each Republicans and Democrats, object to releasing Guantánamo prisoners on grounds that they might be a safety threat, particularly with the continuing upheaval within the Center East.
A State Division official informed NPR that Monday’s switch “was the culmination of years of diplomatic effort and it did advance the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of responsibly reducing the detainee population” at Guantánamo.
The 15 remaining prisoners are:
- seven males dealing with prices, together with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has agreed to a plea deal
- three uncharged males not authorised for switch
- three uncharged males authorised for switch however ready for the U.S. to seek out international locations to take them
- two males who’ve been convicted
The 11 Yemeni males transferred Monday are:
1. Khaled Ahmed Qassim
captured: December 2001
arrived at Guantánamo: Could 2002
cleared for launch: July 2022
2. Uthman Abdul al-Rahim Muhammed Uthman
captured: December 2001
arrived at Guantánamo: January 2002
cleared for launch: Could 2021
3. Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi
captured: December 2001
arrived at Guantánamo: January 2002
cleared for launch: December 2021
4. Zuhail Abdo Anam Mentioned al-Sharabi
captured: February 2002
arrived at Guantánamo: Could 2002
cleared for launch: November 2021
5. Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah
captured: September 2002
arrived at Guantánamo: October 2002
cleared for launch: October 2020
6. Omar Mohammed Ali al-Rammah (various title: Zakaria Al-Baidany)
captured: April 2002
arrived at Guantánamo: Could 2003
cleared for launch: December 2021
7. Tawfiq Nasir Ahmed al-Bihani
captured: late 2001 or early 2002
arrived at Guantánamo: February 2003
cleared for launch: 2010
8. Sanad Yislam al-Kazimi
captured: January 2003
arrived at Guantánamo: September 2004
cleared for launch: October 2021
9. Hassan Mohammed Ali Bin Attash
captured: September 2002
arrived at Guantánamo: September 2004
cleared for launch: April 2022
10. Abdu Ali al-Hajj Sharqawi
captured: February 2002
arrived at Guantánamo: September 2004
cleared for launch: June 2021
11. Abdulsalam al-Hela (various title: Abd al-Salam al-Hilah)
captured: September 2002
arrived at Guantánamo: September 2004
cleared for launch: June 2021
