Six Guantanamo Prisoners to Be Released Soon
The Obama administration is planning to release six Guantanamo Bay prisoners to foreign countries as early as this weekend. The White House notified Congress of the detainees’ pending transfers in classified notices filed on Aug. 7. The prisoners will be released to Afghanistan, Ireland, Portugal, and one other country to be determined.
The Miami Herald reported on the transfers, basing its account on a source familiar with the process but not authorized to speak to the press about the matter.
One of the six prisoners is Mohammed Jawad, 47, who is expected to be sent back to his homeland of Afghanistan. A federal judge ruled in July that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Jawad had thrown a grenade that wounded two American soldiers in a Kabul bazaar in 2002.
The “risk assessments and notification of transfers” for Jawad and the other five prisoners — whose names have not been released — states that two will be sent to Ireland, two to Portugal, and the fifth to a not-yet-determined nation, according to the Herald.
President Obama has promised to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay by Jan. 22, 2010. So, after these six are released overseas, the fate of 223 other prisoner will need to be determined in the next few months.
The president is under a tight deadline because the deal he brokered with Congress banning the release of prisoners on U.S. soil and establishing a formal process to transfer detainees to U.S. prisons expires on Sept. 30.
