WASHINGTON: The Biden administration on Monday moved a detainee from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for the first time, a Moroccan man sent back home years after being recommended for leave.
The Moroccan prisoner, Abdullatif Nasser, who is in his mid-50s, was cleared for repatriation by a review board in July 2016, but remained in Guantanamo for the period. trump presidency
periodical review board The process determined that Nasser’s detention was no longer necessary to protect US national security, pentagon said in a statement on Monday. The board recommended authorization for Nasser’s repatriation, but this could not be completed before the end of the Obama administration, it said.
Nasser transfer may suggest President Joe Biden Efforts are being made to reduce the population of Guantanamo, which now stands at 39. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama supported the prisoner transfer process, but it stalled under President Donald Trump.
Trump had already said before taking office that there should be no further releases than “Gitmo”, as Guantanamo Bay is often referred to. “These are extremely dangerous people and they should not be allowed back to the battlefield,” he said then.
The possibility that former Guantanamo prisoners will resume hostile activities has long been a concern that has played into the debate over release. Office of the Director of national intelligence A 2016 report said that of the 728 detainees released, about 17% were “confirmed” and 12% were “suspected” of re-engaging in such activities.
But the vast majority of those reappointments happened to former prisoners who had not gone through the security review established under Obama. A task force consisting of agencies such as Department of Defense And the CIA analyzed who was held at Guantanamo and determined who could be released and who should continue in custody.
America thanks Morocco To facilitate the transfer back home of Nasir.
“The United States commends the Kingdom of Morocco for its long-standing partnership to safeguard the national security interests of both countries,” the Pentagon statement said. “The United States is also deeply grateful for the Kingdom’s willingness to support the ongoing US effort to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility.”
Nasser initially received news that he was going to be released in the summer of 2016, when one of his lawyers called him to the detention center and told him that the US had decided he was no longer in danger and could go home. . He thought he would soon return to Morocco: “I’ve been here for 14 years,” he said at the time. “Some months and nothing.”
Nasser’s journey in a Cuban prison was long. He was a member of a nonviolent but illegal Moroccan Sufi Islam According to their Pentagon file, the group in the 1980s. In 1996, he was recruited to fight in Chechina, but ended up in Afghanistan, where he shot a . trained in al Qaeda He was captured after fighting with US forces at the camp and deported to Guantanamo in May 2002.
An unnamed military officer appointed to represent him before the review board said he studied mathematics, computer science and English at Guantanamo, creating a 2,000-word Arabic-English dictionary. The official told the board that Nasser “deeply regrets his actions in the past” and expressed confidence that he will rejoin society.
The Moroccan prisoner, Abdullatif Nasser, who is in his mid-50s, was cleared for repatriation by a review board in July 2016, but remained in Guantanamo for the period. trump presidency
periodical review board The process determined that Nasser’s detention was no longer necessary to protect US national security, pentagon said in a statement on Monday. The board recommended authorization for Nasser’s repatriation, but this could not be completed before the end of the Obama administration, it said.
Nasser transfer may suggest President Joe Biden Efforts are being made to reduce the population of Guantanamo, which now stands at 39. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama supported the prisoner transfer process, but it stalled under President Donald Trump.
Trump had already said before taking office that there should be no further releases than “Gitmo”, as Guantanamo Bay is often referred to. “These are extremely dangerous people and they should not be allowed back to the battlefield,” he said then.
The possibility that former Guantanamo prisoners will resume hostile activities has long been a concern that has played into the debate over release. Office of the Director of national intelligence A 2016 report said that of the 728 detainees released, about 17% were “confirmed” and 12% were “suspected” of re-engaging in such activities.
But the vast majority of those reappointments happened to former prisoners who had not gone through the security review established under Obama. A task force consisting of agencies such as Department of Defense And the CIA analyzed who was held at Guantanamo and determined who could be released and who should continue in custody.
America thanks Morocco To facilitate the transfer back home of Nasir.
“The United States commends the Kingdom of Morocco for its long-standing partnership to safeguard the national security interests of both countries,” the Pentagon statement said. “The United States is also deeply grateful for the Kingdom’s willingness to support the ongoing US effort to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility.”
Nasser initially received news that he was going to be released in the summer of 2016, when one of his lawyers called him to the detention center and told him that the US had decided he was no longer in danger and could go home. . He thought he would soon return to Morocco: “I’ve been here for 14 years,” he said at the time. “Some months and nothing.”
Nasser’s journey in a Cuban prison was long. He was a member of a nonviolent but illegal Moroccan Sufi Islam According to their Pentagon file, the group in the 1980s. In 1996, he was recruited to fight in Chechina, but ended up in Afghanistan, where he shot a . trained in al Qaeda He was captured after fighting with US forces at the camp and deported to Guantanamo in May 2002.
An unnamed military officer appointed to represent him before the review board said he studied mathematics, computer science and English at Guantanamo, creating a 2,000-word Arabic-English dictionary. The official told the board that Nasser “deeply regrets his actions in the past” and expressed confidence that he will rejoin society.
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