A static display shows the belongings of a typical inmate in a prison cell at camp V at the USA military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2013. Ambassador Lee Wolosky, Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure at the U.S. State Department, touted the benefits of accomplishing that feat.
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One of the detainees who was transferred is an Afghan national, identified as Obaidullah, who has spent more than 13 years at Guantanamo. The U.S. military prison in Cuba remains a persistent stain on America’s reputation for principled respect for the rule of law.
The release of 12 Yemenis and 3 Afghans brings the number in detainment at the prison in Cuba to 61, the BBC reported, but efforts to close the prison entirely demand congressional approval and remain no less controversial than the prison itself.
“The United States is grateful to the government of the United Arab Emirates for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing USA efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility”, the Pentagon said in a statement.
To release prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, the Periodic Review Board study the case of each detainee and then decides if they are fit to be sent to another country. The man, identified only as Obaidullah, was captured by USA special forces in July 2002 and allegedly admitted to acquiring and planting anti-tank mines to target U.S. and other coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan. Their transfers have been problematic because they are prevented from returning to their home country and the Obama administration is being forced to look for third countries willing to take in the transferred Yemeni detainees. Those determinations have in recent years reduced the detainee population from the 238 when Obama came into office.
In February 2016, the White House presented to Congress a plan to close the facility, transferring the remaining detainees to their home countries or to USA military or civilian prisons. He promised to close Guantanamo when he was first elected in 2008. A Pentagon profile from Sept 2015 said he expressed dislike of the United States, which they identified as “an emotion that probably is motivated more by frustration over his continuing detention than by a commitment to global jihad”.
Republicans and some Democrats in the United States, however, say the worldwide outreach is not worth the risk to U.S. security that comes from releasing the type of prisoners who have been held at the naval base.
Dr Albadr Alshateri, professor at the National Defence College, Abu Dhabi said: “The second batch of detainees released to UAE, after five that was transferred past year, indicates the Obama administration intention to put this irksome problem inherited from the Bush-era behind its back”. They were cleared for release by the Periodic Review Board, composed of representatives from six US government agencies.
Former US President, George Bush opened it to accommodate foreign terror suspects after the September 11 attacks in 2001 on the US.
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The office of the director of national intelligence says 21% of those went on to re-engage in militant activities, while of those released under Mr Obama only 5% have done so.
