Biden transfers Moroccan in step to shut Guantanamo
The Biden administration took a step toward its goal of shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention center for terror suspects Monday, releasing into the custody of his home country a Moroccan who’d been held without charge almost since the U.S. opened the facility 19 years ago.
The transfer of Abdullatif Nasser was the first by the Biden administration, reviving an Obama administration effort that had been stymied by conservative opposition and the difficulty of resolving the remaining few dozen cases, including finding secure sites to send some of the detainees.
Rights groups have called the detentions and detention camp, opened under President George W. Bush after the 2001 al-Qaida attacks, a historic wrong by the United States. There were allegations of torture in early questioning, and challenges to the lawfulness of military tribunals there. The Bush administration and supporters called the camp, on a U.S. naval base in Cuba, essential to safely managing international terror suspects.
A review board had recommended repatriation for Nasser, who is in his mid50s, in July 2016, but he had remained at Guantanamo under President Donald Trump, who opposed closing the site.
In announcing Nasser’s transfer, the Pentagon cited the board’s determination that his detention was no longer necessary to protect U.S. national security.
Nasser, also known as Abdul Latif Nasser, arrived Monday in Morocco. Police took him into custody and said they would investigate him on suspicion of committing terrorist acts - though he was never charged while in Guantanamo.
Nasser’s attorney in Morocco, Khalil Idrissi, said the years Nasser spent in Guantanamo “were unjustified and outside the law, and what he suffered remains a stain of disgrace on the forehead of the American system.”
The State Department said President Joe Biden’s administration would continue “a deliberate and thorough process” aimed at reducing the detainee population at Guantanamo “while also safeguarding the security of the United States and its allies.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration was considering all available options for safely transferring out the last detainees and shutting down Guantanamo.
That would mean succeeding where President Barack Obama had failed. Shortly after he took office in January 2009, Obama had pledged to close the detention camp within a year. Psaki at a White House briefing declined to set any timeline.
The Biden administration is also moving rapidly this summer to end U.S. military combat in Afghanistan, another lingering legacy dating back to the first weeks of the American retaliation against the al-Qaida plotters responsible for the 9/11 attacks and against al-Qaida’s Afghan Taliban hosts.