Biden administration releases 11 Yemeni terrorists from Guantanamo Bay

The Biden administration has released 11 Yemeni terrorists captured after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at Guantanamo Bay.

While the men had been “approved for transfer by national security officials” more than two years ago, their transfer to Oman was approved Monday, according to NPR News.

Oman reportedly “agreed to assist in the relocation and provide security oversight” of the 11 prisoners, who are described as “former members of Al-Qaeda,” according to US Department of Defense records. .

The outlet noted that the prisoner transfers were “originally planned for October 2023” but were suspended “due to concerns” about “instability in the Middle East” following the Hamas attack on Israel October 7, 2023. .

That the plan was resurrected in the final two weeks of President Biden’s term speaks to a last-ditch effort by his administration to reduce Guantanamo’s prison population and move closer to its goal of trying to close the ‘establishment. In recent weeks, the United States has transferred four more Guantanamo detainees – a Kenyan, a Tunisian and two Malaysians – and is preparing to transfer at least one more, an Iraqi.

Oman said it planned to help the 11 Yemeni prisoners find “housing, employment and other support systems” with the aim of allowing them to “rebuild their lives”, according to the media outlet.

This is not the first time the Biden administration has released a Guantanamo Bay prisoner who has ties to terrorist organizations.

As Frances Martel of Breitbart News previously reported, in June 2022, Assadullah Haroon Gul, an Afghan national with ties to al-Qaeda, was released from Guantanamo Bay.

The now-defunct Afghan army arrested Haroon in 2017 on charges that he was “a commander of Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, a paramilitary group then allied with Al-Qaeda,” the Washington Post reported last year. The D.C. newspaper called Haroon a “low value” detainee, given that the group he was allegedly a member of was now an active participant in the U.S.-backed Afghan government. Al-Qaeda is closely linked to the Taliban, the pretext used by the US government to invade Afghanistan and overthrow its first government in 2001.

In March 2022, the Biden administration’s Department of Defense also released Mohammad Mani Ahmad al-Qahtani to Saudi Arabia. Al-Qahtani’s release comes after he spent “nearly 20 years in prison for his involvement in the September 11 terrorist attack.”

Biden has previously said he wants to close Guantanamo Bay by the end of his term as president, according to CNN.