Released Guantanamo prisoners from Yemen sent to Oman

[Disir]

MIAMI -- Ten prisoners from Yemen who were held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been released and sent to the Middle Eastern nation of Oman for resettlement, officials said Thursday, portraying it as a significant milestone in the long-stalled effort to shutter the detention center.
CBS News confirmed yesterday that ten Yemenis held at Guantanamo Bay would transferred to Middle East countries willing to take them.
The release, among the largest on a single day under President Barack Obama, puts the prison population below 100 for the first time since shortly after it opened in January 2002 to hold men suspected of links to al Qaeda and the Taliban. There are now 93 still held.
Lee Wolosky, the State Department's special envoy for Guantanamo Closure, said the U.S. expects to transfer the remaining prisoners who are cleared to leave, about a third of the total, by summer.
Released Guantanamo prisoners from Yemen sent to Oman

Oman may be the only one willing to take 'em at this point.

 

[the_human_being]

I feel confident they will all go into the clergy or find some other means of serving mankind.

 

[waltky]

A 'present' for the Saudis on Obama's upcoming trip...

US frees 9 Guantanamo prisoners, sends them to Saudi Arabia
Apr 16,`16 -- The U.S. has released nine more prisoners from its base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and sent them to Saudi Arabia for resettlement, officials said Saturday.

The move announced in a Pentagon statement is part of an effort by President Barack Obama's administration to release detainees considered low-risk while seeking to transfer the remainder to the U.S. "The United States is grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," the Pentagon said. With this latest release, there are now 80 prisoners at Guantanamo, including 26 cleared men expected to be sent home or to another country by the end of the summer.

Congress, however, has prohibited sending Guantanamo prisoners to the U.S. for any reason and some lawmakers want to place new restrictions on future releases and transfers. All of the men whose release was announced Saturday are Yemeni but could not be sent back to their homeland because U.S. officials fear that the instability there would enable them to resume the militant activities that landed them at Guantanamo in the first place. They are expected to take part in a Saudi rehabilitation program for an undisclosed length of time.

Tthe entrance to Camp America is seen at U.S. Guantanamo Naval Base, Cuba. Authorities say the U.S. has released nine prisoners from Guantanamo Bay and sent them to Saudi Arabia for resettlement. All nine are Yemeni but have family ties to Saudi Arabia. None of the men had been charged and all but one had been cleared for release from the U.S. base in Cuba since at least 2010. One was approved for release by a review board last year.​

The nine Yemenis include Tariq Ba Odah, a frequent hunger striker whose weight dropped to a dangerously low 74 pounds (34 kilograms) at one point as the military fed him with liquid nutrients to prevent him from starving to death. His lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights had sought a court order to force the U.S. to free him earlier due to his health. "Mr. Ba Odah's transfer today ends one of the most appalling chapters in Guantanamo's sordid history," said Omar Farah, an attorney for the prisoner. "Now that Mr. Ba Odah is finally free, we are hopeful that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will provide him the sophisticated medical care he desperately needs."

Eight of the prisoners, including Ba Odah, had been cleared for released from Guantanamo since at least January 2009, when an Obama administration task force evaluated all of the prisoners held at that time. The ninth, Mashur Abdullah Muqbil Ahmed Al-Sabri, was cleared by a review board last year. The other prisoners in this release were identified as: Ahmed Umar Abdullah Al-Hikimi; Abdul Rahman Mohammed Saleh Nasir; Ali Yahya Mahdi Al-Raimi; Muhammed Abdullah Muhammed Al-Hamiri; Ahmed Yaslam Said Kuman; Abd al Rahman Al-Qyati; and Mansour Muhammed Ali Al-Qatta.

News from The Associated Press

 

[waltky]

Disorder in Yemen threatens stability of Saudi Arabia...

As UN Rights Council Mulls Measure on Saudi Abuses in Yemen, Where Does the US Stand?
September 27, 2016 – The Obama administration is caught between allies in Europe and the Arab world as a resolution comes before the U.N. Human Rights Council this week, calling for an independent investigation into human rights abuses in Yemen.

The draft resolution, introduced by the Netherlands and supported by Washington’s European partners, is opposed by Saudi Arabia, whose airstrike campaign against Shi’ite militia in Yemen has cost thousands of civilian lives. The U.S. has provided logistical support for the Saudi effort. It was launched in a bid to restore the internationally-recognized government of President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, but the climbing civilian death toll in the 18-month campaign has drawn increasing condemnation.

The U.N. human rights office said last week at least 3,980 civilians have been killed and more than 6,900 injured in the conflict. In August alone, at least 41 civilian facilities – including markets, hospitals and places of worship – were attacked and 180 civilians killed, it said. As diplomats discuss the Dutch-drafted resolution on the sidelines of the HRC session in Geneva this week, the U.S. has yet to make its position clear. The U.S. would not have a vote on the measure, as it is does not currently have a seat on the 47-member council. But it could lend valuable moral support, should it choose to do so. (The U.S. is taking a mandatory 12-month break after two consecutive terms on the HRC from 2009-2015. It is expected to return in January, after elections due to be held in New York later this fall.)

Saudi Arabia and its allies, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, are presently members of the council. When the Netherlands attempted a similar push at the HRC a year ago, U.S. administration officials did not come out strongly in support of the initiative, pressing for “consensus” in the deeply divided council. The Dutch bid eventually died. A Democratic lawmaker strongly critical of the Saudi campaign in Yemen urged U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power in a letter this week to come out in support for calls for an independent investigation. “The repeated killing of civilians by the Saudi coalition, done with U.S. assistance, violates not just our moral conscience but degrades our reputation and standing in the world,” wrote Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). “Based on my work with U.N. officials and human rights groups over the past year and a half, it is clear to me that many people in Yemen hold the U.S. responsible for the actions of the Saudi military coalition,” Lieu said. “We are also potentially creating numerous recruiting opportunities for terrorists with every U.S.-enabled bomb that drops in children and civilians in Yemen.”

U.S. lawmakers critical of the Saudi campaign in Yemen sought last week to block a $1.15 billion sale of tanks and other arms to the kingdom, but the bipartisan measure failed to pass in the U.S. Senate by a 26-71 vote. “We are complicit and actively involved with war in Yemen,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told the Senate. “There’s been no debate in Congress, really no debate in the public sphere, over whether or not we should be at war in Yemen.” “Our resolution may not have passed today, but this debate was very important in and of itself,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) afterwards. “For the first time in recent history, the Senate debated whether continued, unquestioned arms sales to the Saudis serves America’s national interest.”

MORE

 

[Esmeralda]

MIAMI -- Ten prisoners from Yemen who were held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been released and sent to the Middle Eastern nation of Oman for resettlement, officials said Thursday, portraying it as a significant milestone in the long-stalled effort to shutter the detention center.
CBS News confirmed yesterday that ten Yemenis held at Guantanamo Bay would transferred to Middle East countries willing to take them.
The release, among the largest on a single day under President Barack Obama, puts the prison population below 100 for the first time since shortly after it opened in January 2002 to hold men suspected of links to al Qaeda and the Taliban. There are now 93 still held.
Lee Wolosky, the State Department's special envoy for Guantanamo Closure, said the U.S. expects to transfer the remaining prisoners who are cleared to leave, about a third of the total, by summer.
Released Guantanamo prisoners from Yemen sent to Oman

Oman may be the only one willing to take 'em at this point.

You are blaming Obama for this mess when it was GEORGE W. BUSH WHO CREATED IT. Same thing with Afghanistan and ISIS. All problems created by GEORGE W. BUSH.

 

[Disir]

MIAMI -- Ten prisoners from Yemen who were held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been released and sent to the Middle Eastern nation of Oman for resettlement, officials said Thursday, portraying it as a significant milestone in the long-stalled effort to shutter the detention center.
CBS News confirmed yesterday that ten Yemenis held at Guantanamo Bay would transferred to Middle East countries willing to take them.
The release, among the largest on a single day under President Barack Obama, puts the prison population below 100 for the first time since shortly after it opened in January 2002 to hold men suspected of links to al Qaeda and the Taliban. There are now 93 still held.
Lee Wolosky, the State Department's special envoy for Guantanamo Closure, said the U.S. expects to transfer the remaining prisoners who are cleared to leave, about a third of the total, by summer.
Released Guantanamo prisoners from Yemen sent to Oman

Oman may be the only one willing to take 'em at this point.

You are blaming Obama for this mess when it was GEORGE W. BUSH WHO CREATED IT. Same thing with Afghanistan and ISIS. All problems created by GEORGE W. BUSH.

Are you high?