Obama follows Paris terrorist attack by releasing 5 from Gitmo, including bin Laden bodyguard
Five men who have been held for more than 13 years at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been released and sent to the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon said Sunday, just days after Friday’s ISIS terrorist attacks in France.
The five Yemeni men were accepted for resettlement after U.S. authorities determined they no longer posed a threat, the Defense Department said in a statement. Their release brings the Guantanamo prison population to 107.
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” but the task force’s recommendation in Razihi’s case was overruled by a parole-like review board that recommended him for transfer.
Officials in the United Arab Emirates did not immediately comment Monday on the men’s resettlement, nor was there any word about their arrival in the country’s state-run media.
In July 2008, the seven-emirate nation accepted an unidentified Guantanamo detainee at the same time Afghanistan and Qatar each accepted one.
photo/ donkeyhotey
