Six Guantanamo Detainees Released Amid Push to Close Prison

The releases are part of a push by President Barack Obama to accelerate transfers of detainees, many held since before he took office promising to close the facility that once held hundreds of suspected members of al-Qaeda.

One of those released was Jihad Diyab, a 43-year-old Syrian held for 12 years without trial who went on several hunger strikes and challenged his force-feeding, the New York Times reported.

Obama has sought to close the Guantanamo prison since taking office against resistance from members of Congress who oppose prosecuting alleged terrorists in the U.S., asserting that released detainees have gone back to attacking Americans.

The U.S. government conducted an interagency review to determine whether the detainees met the standards for release, including whether they posed a security threat, according to a statement issued today by the Defense Department. Congress was informed in advance of the release, the statement said.

“The United States coordinated with the government of Uruguay to ensure these transfers took place consistent with the appropriate security and humane treatment measures,” the department said.

Open Letter

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica sent an open letter to Obama on Dec. 5 offering to resettle the six prisoners while calling on the U.S. to end its embargo against Cuba, according to the Associated Press.

“We have offered our hospitality for human beings who suffered an atrocious kidnapping in Guantanamo,” Mujica said, according to the AP.

Mujica, a former urban guerrilla fighter, agreed earlier this year to resettle the detainees on humanitarian grounds.

After the releases, the detention center on U.S.-held territory in Cuba still holds 136 prisoners detained on the suspicion they have ties to terrorist organizations including al-Qaeda, the department said in the statement.

President George W. Bush began using the detention facility in Cuba to hold suspected and accused terrorists after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Obama campaigned for president promising to close Guantanamo, saying it attracted international criticism of U.S. detention policies and interrogation practices. Facing congressional opposition, Obama backed away from an executive order to close the prison that he issued the day he took office.

Hagel Approved

The release of the six prisoners was personally approved by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who is stepping down amid tensions with Obama’s White House advisers. One point of tension has been Hagel’s reluctance to sign off on proposed prisoner releases as not posing a risk to national security.

Hagel is currently traveling, visiting a forward operating base in Afghanistan earlier today.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said on Nov. 25 that Hagel “fully supports the president’s policy that the Guantanamo detention facility should close and that those detainees should be transferred out of there.

‘‘He has also said himself that he takes his responsibility very seriously’’ in making ‘‘detainee transfers and making sure that the assurances we get from third-party countries are adequate to our own national security,’’ Kirby said. ‘‘He takes that very seriously, and there’s not a single transfer that he signs off that he doesn’t do so in a very sober fashion.”

In 2012, Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee released a report asserting that about 27 percent of 600 detainees released from Guantanamo have been confirmed or suspected of returning to terrorist or insurgent activities. Democrats on the panel dismissed the report as “smoke and mirrors.”

The annual defense authorization bill that passed the House last week would extend a congressional ban on closing the prison.