US Transfers 11 Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Oman

The control tower is seen through razor wire inside the Camp VI detention facility in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, on April 17, 2019. Alex Brandon/AP Photo

The United States transferred 11 Yemeni men to Oman this week after holding them for more than two decades without charge in Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon announced Monday.

The move marks the biggest push by the Biden administration to clear the detention facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba of the last remaining detainees who were never charged with a crime, according to the Associated Press.

An interagency review board unanimously determined that the detainees were eligible for transfer consistent with the national security interests of the United States. The Oman government agreed to help resettle them.

“The United States appreciates the willingness of the Government of Oman and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Department of Defense (DOD) said in a press release.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in September 2023 notified Congress of his intent to repatriate the detainees.

The 11 detainees were identified as: Uthman Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Uthman, Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi, Khalid Ahmed Qassim, Suhayl Abdul Anam al Sharabi, Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah, Tawfiq Nasir Awad Al-Bihani, Omar Mohammed Ali al-Rammah, Sanad Ali Yislam Al Kazimi, Hassan Muhammad Ali Bib Attash, Sharqawi Abdu Ali Al Hajj, and Abd Al-Salam Al-Hilah.

President Joe Biden early in his term committed to closing down Guantanamo Bay following a review of the detention center, continuing efforts initiated by President Barack Obama.

The George W. Bush administration first opened the detention center in January 2002 after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Afghanistan invasion. It was meant to hold individuals suspected of ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban in what the U.S. government referred to as its “war on terror.”

For more than two decades, however, the facility was often criticized over the treatment of prisoners and prolonged imprisonment of people without charge. Amnesty International has described the detention center as “a symbol of torture, rendition and indefinite detention without charge or trial.”

In 2021, Austin said in written testimony for his Senate confirmation that the facility served its purpose at the time but should be shut down for good.

“Guantanamo has provided us the capability to conduct law of war detention in order to keep our enemies off the battlefield, but I believe it is time for the detention facility at Guantanamo to close,” Austin wrote.

The latest release leaves the total number of detainees at the detention facility at 15, the least amount of detainees since 2002. At its peak, Guantanamo Bay held about 700 detainees.

Six of the remaining detainees have never been charged.

From NTD News