People walk past a guard tower in front of the fence of Camp 5 at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, January 26, 2017.
Thomas Watkins/AFP via Getty Images
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Thomas Watkins/AFP via Getty Images
In the most dramatic move in years to reduce the population of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the Biden administration transferred 11 Yemeni detainees to Oman, which agreed to help them resettle and provide security monitoring.
All the men captured following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 had been detained for more than two decades without being charged or tried. All had been cleared for transfer by national security officials more than two years ago and sometimes well before that – one had been cleared for transfer since 2010 – but remained behind bars in due to political and diplomatic factors.
Their release leaves only 15 prisoners at Guantánamo, reducing the number of detainees by almost half.
Monday’s transfers were originally scheduled to take place in October 2023, but were halted at the last minute due to congressional concerns about instability in the Middle East following Hamas’ attack on Israel.
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 closing the facility. 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.
This flurry of activity is driven by the assumption that transfers from Guantanamo may stop once Donald Trump returns to the White House. Trump previously pledged to keep Guantanamo open and “load it with bad guys,” although he did not send any prisoners there. Despite its belated efforts, it is unlikely that the Biden administration will be able to close the Guantanamo prison and court before Trump takes office.
The transfer of the 11 Yemenis was the result of long and complicated diplomatic negotiations. They remained imprisoned although they could be released because they were legally prohibited from returning to Yemen, a failed state considered highly unstable. This meant that the United States faced the complex challenge of finding another country or countries to host them. Oman, a U.S. ally, has hosted at least 30 other Guantanamo prisoners in the past.
According to U.S. Department of Defense records, all of the Yemeni men are former members of al-Qaeda, although many of them dispute U.S. accounts of their origins. Before arriving at Guantanamo between 2002 and 2004, several of them were held in secret CIA prisons overseas, known as black sites, where torture was common.
Eventually, the U.S. government determined that they no longer posed a significant enough threat to warrant their continued detention. However, several transfers are dependent on “strong” security guarantees from Oman, such as surveillance, travel restrictions and “integration support”. Oman said it would help men find housing, jobs and other support systems aimed at allowing them to rebuild their lives and, in some cases, reunite them with family members.
Three other Guantanamo detainees – a Libyan, a Somali and a stateless Rohingya – have been cleared for transfer but remain imprisoned. Libyans and Somalis cannot be returned to their home countries because those countries, like Yemen, are on Congress’ no-transfer list for security reasons. The United States must therefore find other countries to resettle them.
The Iraqi prisoner currently being transferred has pleaded guilty to war crimes and the United States wants to send him to a prison in Iraq. However, the man recently filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block his transfer because he said the Iraqi prison could expose him to abuse and inadequate medical care; he suffers from a debilitating spinal disease.
The U.S. prison and military court at Guantanamo was created to house and prosecute suspected foreign terrorists after the September 11 attacks. The first prisoners arrived in January 2002, and approximately 780 inmates eventually passed through the facility, most of them never charged but held for years. Supporters of Guantanamo say it is a security necessity. Critics call it a moral stain on America.
In addition to silencing human rights complaints, transferring prisoners to other countries represents a huge financial saving for the United States, which spends more than half a billion dollars a year on the court and Guantanamo prison. Each inmate held at this facility costs U.S. taxpayers about $15 million a year, compared to about $80,000 per inmate at a U.S. supermax facility.
Yet some members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, oppose the release of Guantanamo prisoners, saying they could pose a security risk, particularly amid ongoing unrest in the Middle East.
A State Department official told NPR that Monday’s transfer “was the culmination of years of diplomatic efforts and advances the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of responsibly reducing the detained population” at Guantanamo.
The remaining 15 prisoners are:
- seven men face charges, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who accepted a plea deal
- three uncharged men whose transfer was not approved
- three unindicted men have been transferred but are waiting for the United States to find countries to receive them
- two men who were convicted
The 11 Yemeni men transferred on Monday are:
1. Khaled Ahmed Qassim
captured: December 2001
arrived at Guantanamo: May 2002
exit authorization: July 2022
2. Uthman Abdul al-Rahim Muhammed Uthman
captured: December 2001
arrived at Guantanamo: January 2002
exit authorization: May 2021
3. Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi
captured: December 2001
arrived at Guantanamo: January 2002
exit authorization: December 2021
4. Zuhail Abdo Anam Said al-Sharabi
captured: February 2002
arrived at Guantanamo: May 2002
exit authorization: November 2021
5. Hani Saleh Rashid Abdallah
captured: September 2002
arrived at Guantanamo: October 2002
exit authorization: October 2020
6. Omar Mohammed Ali al-Rammah (alternative name: Zakaria Al-Baidany)
captured: April 2002
arrived at Guantanamo: May 2003
exit authorization: December 2021
7. Tawfiq Nasir Ahmed al-Bihani
captured: late 2001 or early 2002
arrived at Guantanamo: February 2003
release authorization: 2010
8. Sanad Yislam al-Kazimi
captured: January 2003
arrived at Guantanamo: September 2004
exit authorization: October 2021
9. Hassan Mohammed Ali Bin Attash
captured: September 2002
arrived at Guantanamo: September 2004
exit authorization: April 2022
10. Abdu Ali al-Hajj Sharqawi
captured: February 2002
arrived at Guantanamo: September 2004
exit authorization: June 2021
11. Abdulsalam al-Hela (alternative name: Abd al-Salam al-Hilah)
captured: September 2002
arrived at Guantanamo: September 2004
exit authorization: June 2021
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