In step to shut Guantanamo, Biden transfers Moroccan home

The Biden administration took a step toward its goal of shutting down the Guantánamo Bay detention centre 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.

Rights groups have called the detentions and detention camp, opened under president George W. Bush on a U.S. naval base in Cuba after the 2001 al-Qaida attacks, a historic wrong by the U.S.

A review board had recommended repatriation for Nasser, who is in his mid-50s, in July 2016, but he had remained at Guantánamo under president Donald Trump, who opposed closing the site.

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.

Almost 800 detainees have passed through Guantanamo. Of the 39 remaining, 10 are eligible to be transferred out, 17 are eligible to go through the review process for possible transfer, another 10 are involved in the military commission process used to prosecute detainees and two have been convicted, a senior administration official said.