10 more prisoners leave Guantanamo

Associated Press

MIAMI

Ten prisoners from Yemen who were held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been released and sent to the Middle Eastern nation of Oman for resettlement, officials said Thursday, portraying it as a significant milestone in the long-stalled effort to shutter the detention center.

The release, among the largest on a single day under President Barack Obama, puts the prison population below 100 for the first time since shortly after it opened in January 2002 to hold men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. There are now 93 still held.

Lee Wolosky, the State Department’s special envoy for Guantanamo Closure, said the U.S. expects to transfer the remaining prisoners who are cleared to leave, about a third of the total, by summer.

Guantanamo held nearly 680 prisoners at its peak in 2003 and about 245 when Obama took office, pledging to close it as a symbol of overreach in the war against terrorism and a needless propaganda symbol for enemies of the United States.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the release of the Yemenis at a change-of-command ceremony in Miami at U.S. Southern Command, which oversees Guantanamo. He said the administration would submit a plan to Congress, where many want to keep the prison open, to move those who can’t be freed to a facility within the United States.

“Not everyone in Gitmo can be safely transferred to another country, so we need an alternative,” Carter said, using a common abbreviated name for the base on the southeastern edge of Cuba.

A White House official confirmed that Obama’s national security team recently received a new version of the plan and was making final revisions.