Two weeks ago, White House National Security adviser Susan Rice said during an interview that officials in the Obama administration would "die trying" to close Guantanamo Bay prison, something President Obama promised to do during his 2008 presidential campaign.
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Last summer we saw the exchange of Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl (someone Rice said served with "honor and distinction") for five top Taliban commanders. Now, just two days after ISIS carried out the worst terror attack in France since World War II, the Obama administration has transferred five more detainees to the United Arab Emirates.
The Department of Defense announced late Sunday that five Yemeni detainees who had been held at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been released and sent to the United Arab Emirates.Last week Congress passed legislation banning the transfer of GITMO detainees to the United States as President Obama continues to threaten closing the prison through an executive order.
The transfer of Ali Ahmad Muhammad al-Razihi, Khalid Abd-al-Jabbar Muhammad Uthman al-Qadasi, Adil Said al-Hajj Ubayd al-Busays, Sulayman Awad Bin Uqayl al-Nahdi, and Fahmi Salem Said al-Asani, came after a “comprehensive review” by the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force, according to the Pentagon.
Four of the five detainees —al-Qadasi, al-Busays, al-Nahdi, and al-Asani — had been recommended for transfer by the task force as of January 2010. The task force recommended continuing detention for al-Razihi, saying that he had been a bodyguard for Usama bin Laden and that he probably fought against the rebel Northern Alliance prior to the U.S. invasion. The task force also described al-Razihi as a "medium [security] risk [who] may pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies."
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