Another important note about the Obama administration’s transfer of Gitmo detainee Abdullahi Sudi Arale to Somaliland: In June 2007, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman called Arale a “high-value detainee.” That phrase was reserved for less than twenty detainees. As far as I know, the U.S. has never transferred a “high-value detainee” from its custody. One “high-value detainee,” Ahmed Ghailani, was transferred to New York for trial. But he is, of course, still detained by the U.S. Does this mean that Arale was the first “high-value detainee” ever transferred from American custody?
