Gitmo inmates transfer eyed:

America

Obama

The Pentagon plans to transfer about a dozen inmates of the Guantanamo military prison to at least two countries that have agreed to take them, a US official said on Wednesday, the latest move in US President Barack Obama’s final push to close the facility.

The first of the transfers are expected in the next few days and the others will take place in coming weeks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Among them will be Tariq Ba Odah, a Yemeni man who has been on a long-term hunger strike and has lost about half of his body weight.

There are now 91 prisoners at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Most have been held without charge or trial for more than a decade, drawing international condemnation.

Obama, who last month presented Congress with a blueprint for closing the prison, is seeking to make good on his long-time pledge before he leaves office in January. But he faces stiff opposition from many Republican lawmakers, as well as some of his fellow Democrats.

The Pentagon has notified Congress of its latest planned transfers from among the 37 detainees already cleared to be sent to their homelands or other countries, the official said. US officials have said they expect to move out all members of that group by this summer.

Obama’s plan for shuttering the facility calls for bringing the several dozen remaining prisoners to maximum-security prison in the United States. But US law bars such transfers to the mainland, and Obama has not ruled out doing so by use of executive action.

“I do not have a timeline on when particular detainees will be transferred from Guantanamo,” Commander Gary Ross, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement. “However, the administration is committed to reducing the detainee population and to closing the detention facility responsibly”. (RTRS)