With just two weeks before his exit from the White House, President Joe Biden and his administration have approved the transfer of 11 Yemeni prisoners. Image: NPR.
(The Post News)– The White House has announced the transfer of 11 Yemeni prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Oman, reducing the number of prisoners to 15 at the facility.
According to an article by the Middle East Eye, in May of last year, the US officials acknowledged that the move had originally been scheduled for October 2023, but it was pushed back by the Hamas-led attacks on Southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s was against Gaza.
In a statement, the US military stated that it respects the readiness of the Oman government and other allies to assist the ongoing US efforts aimed at effectively lowering the inmate population and shutting the Guantanamo Bay facility.
NPR reported that all the men who were apprehended after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks had been detained for over two decades without prosecution or standing trial. Moreover, according to NPR, the national security officials approved their transfer over two years ago, and in some cases much earlier—one had been authorized for transfer since 2010, but political and diplomatic factors forced him to remain in detention.
The idea to carry on with the transfers comes during President Joe Biden’s last two weeks in the White House, indicating a final attempt by his cabinet to reduce Guantanamo’s inmate population and move closer to his aim of closing the facility. In the past few weeks, the US has already moved four other inmates: two from Malaysia, one from Tunisia, and another from Kenya. Meanwhile, it is getting ready to move at least one more from Iraq.
The White House believes that the transfers may stop once President-elect Donald Trump takes office; hence, the rush. He had previously threatened to keep the facility open and fill it up with “some bad guys,” which he did not do. At the moment, Trump has not stated what he intends to do with the facility, as Biden’s administration is most unlikely to shut it and its court down before Trump’s return to the White House.
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