The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday it has received 15 detainees from Guantanamo Bay for humanitarian reasons. “We are at an extremely unsafe and pivotal point where if President Obama fails to close Guantanamo then the next administration could bring more detainees there”, Shah said.
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The majority of Guantanamo prisoners already approved for transfer hail from Yemen, but the United States has had a policy against transferring detainees to Yemen due to the ongoing instability there.
“The Clinton-Obama plan to close Gitmo and release terrorists will harm America’s national security”, the campaign said.
Wolosky thanked the UAE for its “continued assistance in closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay” and emphasized the need to shut the prison down.
The detainees consisted of 12 from Yemen, and three from Afghanistan; all had been incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay for at least a decade. The debate is further complicated by former Guantánamo prisoners who have actually rejoined terrorist groups after their release, although the record appears to be improving: At least 21 percent of detainees released during the Bush administration re-engaged in terrorism, compared to 5 percent during Obama’s, according to United States intelligence officials. Since that report however, the administration has refused to elaborate on his comments saying that the information was classified.
The president faces opposition about the future of the prison from many members of Congress.
Ayotte recently released unclassified files on some of the remaining detainees, and said Tuesday that the latest batch of 15 are “among the worst terrorists”.
A statement from the Department of Defense confirmed the move. Obama, though, has not ruled out doing so by executive action.
A top official with the rights group Amnesty International believes Guantanamo will remain open. The Board has representatives from six US government agencies. He had been accused of hiding and storing mines to be used against US forces in Afghanistan. “The American people are counting on us to protect them”, said Hudson on the floor of the U.S. House. The Cuban prison initially opened following 9/11 and acted as a detention for terrorist suspects.
The resistance to closing the facility has grown in recent months after terror attacks in France, London and Belgium highlighted terrorists growing focus on executing attacks on “soft targets” where civilians gather. In 2009 President Barack Obama signed the first in a series of executive orders establishing a review process for detainees.
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The administration has been overt in its intentions to close down the detention center.
