While Obama cried for TV cameras yesterday, his administration was putting the finishing touches on a plan to transfer up to 17 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. This has been in the works for a while.
Catherine Herridge of FOX News reported Monday:
Source: ‘Al Qaeda followers’ among 17 being transferred from GitmoThe group of 17 detainees expected to be transferred out of Guantanamo Bay as early as this week includes “multiple bad guys” and “Al Qaeda followers,” a source who has reviewed the list told Fox News.Little is known publicly about which prisoners are being prepared for transfer, but the Obama administration has notified Congress it plans to ship out 17 detainees – some of whom could be transferred within days.While the identities of the men are closely held, the source who spoke with Fox News said it includes “multiple bad guys … not taxi drivers and cooks.”This is a reference to the administration’s transfer of Ibrahim al Qosi to Sudan in 2012. Despite entering a “re-integration program,” the one-time cook for Usama bin Laden has now fled to Yemen, where he is among the leadership of Al Qaeda in Yemen. That transfer is now said to be a source of considerable heartburn for the Obama administration.As for those on the docket for immediate transfer, the source told Fox News the administration will not identify the detainees until they are relocated in their new home countries — because knowing who they are in advance would create further roadblocks and increase the controversy.
Herridge goes on to say that multiple countries have agreed to take the prisoners. She also provided more details on Special Report with Bret Baier last night:
Morgan Chalfant of the Washington Free Beacon adds this:
With the completion of the 17 planned transfers, the count of terrorist suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay will be reduced to 90.President Obama has been pushing to close the military prison for years, having promised to do so when he took office in 2009. However, lawmakers have sounded alarm about transferring Guantanamo prisoners to other countries and to stateside prisons, citing terrorism fears especially in the wake of deadly terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.Still, the Obama administration has threatened to use executive action to close the prison.
Leave it to Obama to push for disarming Americans and the release of terrorists in the same week.
Featured image via YouTube.
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