The Pentagon says that 15 Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the largest transfer under the Obama administration.
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US officials said in its announcement that 15 detainees – 12 from Yemen and three from Afghanistan – were transferred Monday to the United Arab Emirates, an American ally that agreed to receive the inmates. They had been held in Guantanamo without charges, some of them for more than fourteen years.
While it appears increasingly unlikely that President Barack Obama will succeed in closing the prison before he leaves office in January, the transfer brought him significantly closer to another goal: getting out every detainee who has been approved for transfer.
US Republican lawmakers have thwarted Obama’s attempts to shut down the facility and transfer the remaining detainees – including five on trial by the military commission for plotting the September 11 terror attacks – to facilities inside the United States.
Reacting to recent releases, Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described the freed detainees as “hardened terrorists”.
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 a year ago, indicates the Obama administration intention to put this irksome problem inherited from the Bush-era behind its back”.
“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”, said Lee Wolosky, the State Department’s special envoy for closing the Guantanamo detention centre. The move comes a year after the president’s administration has been working on trying to get the U.A.E.to accept transfers. He said the detention centre serves only to stoke anti-US resentment and fuel recruitment of Islamic militants.
In April, nine Yemeni prisoners were sent to Saudi Arabia.
“The detainees have been vetted through what is a very rigorous process, and I can assure you that it’s a very rigorous process-looked at all of the, you know, whether they would return to the battlefield”, Toner said.
There are still another 19 inmates remaining at Guantanamo who have been cleared for transfer.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida called the transfer “reckless” and Presidential candidate Donald Trump told the Miami Herald last week that he’d be in favor of keeping the military detention center open indefinitely in order to try USA citizens accused of terrorism in military tribunals rather than criminal courts. He is being accused of placing national security at risk following his order to release 15 Guantanamo Bay detainees.
“It is careless for this administration to keep releasing terrorists in an effort to fulfill a campaign promise to close Guantanamo”, Sen.
The Guantanamo Bay prison is located on an American naval base in south-eastern Cuba.
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There was also no immediate reaction in Afghanistan on the transfer of the three Afghans from Guantanamo to the UAE.
