Officials defend flood preparations
WORLD: German officials have defended their preparations for flooding in the face of the raging torrents left over 180 people dead in Western Europe, but conceded that they will need to learn lessons from the disaster. Efforts to find more victims and clean up the mess left behind by the floods continued yesterday as waters receded.
THE Biden administration has transferred a detainee out of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for the first time, sending a Moroccan man back home years after he was recommended for discharge.
The Moroccan prisoner, Abdullatif Nasser, in his mid-50s, was cleared for repatriation by a review board in July 2016 but remained at Guantanamo for the duration of the Trump presidency.
The Periodic Review Board process determined that Nasser’s detention no longer remained necessary to protect US national security, the Pentagon said yesterday in a statement.
The board recommended authorisation for Nasser’s repatriation, but that could not be completed before the end of the Obama administration, it said.
The transfer of Nasser, inset, could suggest President Joe Biden is making efforts to reduce the Guantanamo population, which now stands at 39.
Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama supported the prisoner transfer process, but it stalled under President Donald Trump.
Mr Trump said even before he took office that there should be no further releases from “Gitmo”, as
Guantanamo Bay is often called. “These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield,” he said then.
The possibility that former Guantanamo prisoners would resume hostile activities has long been a concern that has played into the debate over releases.
The office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a 2016 report that about 17 per cent of the 728 detainees who had been released were “confirmed” and 12 per cent were “suspected” of re-engaging in such activities.
But the vast majority of those re-engagements occurred with former prisoners who did not go through the security review that was set up under Mr Obama.
A task force that included agencies such as the defence department and the CIA analysed who was held at Guantanamo and determined who could be released and who should continue in detention.
The US thanked Morocco for facilitating Nasser’s transfer back home.
“The United States commends the Kingdom of Morocco for its long-time partnership in securing both countries’ national security interests,” the Pentagon statement said.