The U.S. has transferred 12 Yemenis and three Afghans from the Cuba facility-Guantanamo prison-to the United Arab Emirates. Gitmo had 242 prisoners when Obama took office in 2009.
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Republican Rep. Ed Royce, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Wall Street Journal that the “cajoling and arm-twisting to get countries to accept these terrorists” is at times “pushing detainees on countries that can’t handle them”.
The UAE ministry said in a statement published on the state news agency website that, following negotiations between its officials and US officials over recent months, the Gulf state had agreed to receive the detainees for “humanitarian reasons”. In fact, the Bush administration released more than twice as many detainees from Guantanamo as has the Obama White House.
President Obama is facing his own deadline to close the prison.
“Once again, hardened terrorists are being released to foreign countries where they will be a threat”, he said.
The largest single transfer of Gitmo prisoners under Mr. Obama comes as the president, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and other top Democrats are accusing Republican nominee Donald Trump of endangering us troops with anti-Muslim rhetoric. He believes that the facility where suspected terrorists have been held for years without trial and were previously interrogated via waterboarding, harms anti-terror work in other countries.
“…[T] here 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’s US director for security and human rights.
Obama revealed his plans to close the prison in February but many Republican lawmakers as well as some fellow Democrats have opposed his decision.
The news of Obama transferring more detainees back to the Middle East is troubling considering what Sen.
Shah said it was important for Obama to push ahead with plans to shutter Guantanamo, or the next administration could start filling its cells with suspected jihadists captured in the campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
Congressman Richard Hudson, center, talks with Robin Bridges, left, and Scott Dorney, right, both of the North Carolina Military Business Center, at Fayetteville Technical Community College on Friday, May 27, 2016. “How can this administration guarantee that these prisoners won’t return to the battlefield?”
In recent months, the number of Gitmo detainees who have returned to their Jihadist ways has doubled, according to a report by Obama’s own Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
“The support of our friends and allies – such as the UAE – is critical to our achieving this shared goal”.
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Reuters News Service contributed to the report.
