US clears 2 Yemenis for transfer from Guantanamo

Protesters demanded the closure of the detention centre at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on its 16th anniversary on 11 December 2017 [Safvan Allahverdi/Anadolu Agency]

Two Yemeni men held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba since 2004 have been cleared for transfer to another country, a US review board determined last week, Reuters reports.

Abd Al-Salam Al-Hilah and Sharqawi Abdu Ali Al-Hajj were both cleared for transfer as President Joe Biden’s administration has revived a goal of closing the prison that came to symbolise the excesses of the US “war on terror”.

The United States now must seek to find countries willing to take the detainees.

Al-Hajj is a career jihadist who acted as a prominent financial and travel facilitator for Al-Qaeda members before and after the 9/11 attacks, according to his detainee profile on the website of the Periodic Review Board, an interagency US government group.

Torture methods used:

Cramped confinement: Detainee held in a box for up to 18 hours, sometimes with a ‘harmless’ insect
Groin searches: Physical ‘sexual harassment search’
Nudity: Detainees forced to stand for prolonged periods while nude
Sleep Deprivation: Detainees kept awake for up to 180 hours, often standing or in a stress position
Walling: Interrogators slam detainees against a wall
Waterboarding: The detainee is strapped to a board or bench and water is poured over their face to simulate drowning

Al-Hilah entered into extremist circles at a young age and rose to be a prominent extremist facilitator, according to his profile. He has expressed continued support for extremists and terrorist groups, including Daesh, the profile said.

“The Periodic Review Board, by consensus, determined that continued law of war detention of the detainee is no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States,” according to statements on the separate decisions.

Set up to house foreign suspects following the September 11 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, the US military prison has held about 800 detainees during its history. Now, only about 40 remain, most held for nearly two decades without being charged or tried.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month said the Biden administration is “actively looking” into recreating the position of a State Department envoy for the closure of the Guantanamo prison.

Upon taking office in 2009, then-President Barack Obama ordered the detention operation at Guantanamo closed by January 2010 but missed the deadline, partly because Congress imposed tough restrictions on prisoner transfers, including a ban on bringing them to prisons on the US mainland.

Former President Donald Trump signed an order in 2018 to keep the detention centre open. He transferred one prisoner to Saudi Arabia.

READ: Guantanamo’s cruelty is medieval. It’s a horror story. And it’s true.

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