Blake Hall
President Obama’s final term is winding down, so his administration is racing to dismantle Guantanamo Bay before time runs out. The United States just transferred 10 detainees to the Gulf sultanate of Oman on Thursday, bringing Gitmo’s total prison population to 93.
What looks like a mere prisoner transfer is actually a huge milestone. This is the largest transfer of prisoners since 2009, and their departure marks the first time the prison has held less than 100 prisoners since 2002. At its peak, Gimto held 779 people. Most were released during the George W. Bush administration, but the 10 detainees released Thursday had all been imprisoned for fourteen years.
Fourteen prisoners have already been resettled in 2016. It’s likely the administration will continue to shuffle prisoners to new locations in order to attain Obama’ s goal to close Guantanamo Bay before next year.
“While we work with Congress on a way forward, we will continue to transfer Guantanamo detainees to other countries when and as we have mitigated any security risk to the United States,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said.
However, unloading prisoners is hard to accomplish because the Obama administration cannot repatriate Yemeni detainees, the largest ethnic group in Gitmo, to the United States. Instead it has to rely on smaller countries like Oman to take them.
According to the Oman government, even their help will only be ‘temporary.’
Obama’s plan is not without its critics.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said a rapid series of transfers “increases the danger” to the United States.
“The president’s tactic is try to get rid of everybody out there that he can, and then argue that there’s so few people there we might as well close it,” Thornberry said. “I think that’s exactly what’s going on.”