OMAN ACCEPTS 10 GITMO DETAINEES; 93 REMAIN

The Pentagon announced Thursday it had transferred 10 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay to the Arabian nation of Oman.

The transfers bring the number of detainees at the military prison to 93 as President Obama continues to try to make good on his campaign promise to close the facility — or at least vastly reduce the number of detainees.

“This chipping away at the population ... certainly is what we can do right now,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday after a detainee had been transferred to Saudi Arabia. “But ultimately, to accomplish the goal of closing it, we’re going to need Congress to remove some obstacles that have prevented it.”

In his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, Obama once again called on Congress to close the facility completely. “It is expensive, it is unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies,” he said.

Themost recent batch of released detainees included Samir Naji al-Hasan Muqbil, who was on the first plane to Guantanamo in January 2002, according to the human rights group Reprieve, which applauded his release Thursday.

“We are delighted that the Omani government has given him the chance to rebuild his life and, we hope, to reconnect with his family,” said Cory Crider, a lawyer for the detainees and a Reprieve official. “But the abuses Samir exposed to the world continue to this day — and the force-feeding videotapes I’ve watched would make your blood run cold. That’s why the solicitor general ought to let Americans see the footage — the tapes make an exquisite case for why Guantanamo Bay has to close.”

The Department of Defense said all 10 were unanimously approved for transfer by the six departments and agencies in the Guantanamo Review Task Force that Obama set up to screen detainees for release. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter also signed off on the transfers and notified Congress, the Pentagon said.

Carter said the administration would work with Congress to find ways to transfer all the detainees “as we diligently work to close this chapter in our history.”