The Obama administration is defending its decision to release two more detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison, just a week after Republicans questioned whether the countries that agree to hold the detainees are able to monitor them and prevent them from returning to terrorism.
On Monday, the administration announced that it had sent two Libyan detainees held at Guantanamo Bay to Senegal. The two are the first of a group of about a dozen inmates expected to be resettled, and their transfer brings the number of remaining detainees at the island prison to 89.
“Let me express my gratitude to the Republic of Senegal for this generous humanitarian gesture,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during his daily briefing about Senegal’s decision to detain the prisoners.
The decision to transfer these two detainees “reflects the careful analysis of a review board” that was established to determine the risk involved in resettling the detainees in countries willing to take them, he said.
Earnest dodged a question on whether the most recent releases mean President Obama will move forward with an executive action to close the facility as a way to circumvent the GOP-controlled Congress, which remains opposed to shuttering the prison.
“This does enhance our ability to continue to make the case to Congress that we can close the prison at Guantanamo and [remain] consistent with our national security priorities,” he said when asked.
Just a week ago, Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he worried that some of the detainees had been transferred to countries such as El Salvador, Ghana, Uruguay and Kazakhstan. He said all those countries lack the infrastructure and security apparatuses to keep track of the detainees.
