Only 55 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay following Thursday’s transfer of four men to Saudi Arabia.
The four detainees who were transferred are: Salem Ahmad Hadi Bin Kanad, Muhammed Rajab Sadiq Abu Ghanim, Abdallah Yahya Yusif Al-Shibli, and Muhammad Ali Abdallah Muhammad Bwazir.
This week, President-elect Trump on Twitter called for “no further releases from Gitmo,” a warning the White House immediately rejected.
Obama will not be able to fulfill his campaign pledge to close the detention center in Cuba by the time he leaves office on Jan. 20. While Trump has said he wants to put more terrorists into the military prison, supporters of closing it hope that the expensive cost-per-prisoner will appeal to his business sense.
The law prohibits moving any detainees to the U.S., so Trump would need to work with Congress to change the law if he wanted to close Gitmo and detain those who can’t be released at federal or military prisons.
