The Pentagon transferred a detainee from Guantanamo Bay to Mauritania on Monday, bringing the population of the detention center down to 60.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritania national, was cleared for release on July 14, according to a Pentagon release.
In the early 1990s, Slahi fought with the mujahidin in Afghanistan, where he trained with and swore allegiance to al Qaeda, according to a report from Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., on current detainees. After that, he lived mostly in Germany, but spent time in Canada and Mauritania recruiting for Bosnian and Chechen jihads.
He helped the operational coordinator for 9/11 as well as two of the hijackers who traveled to Chechnya two years before the attack in 1999.
Slahi’s transfer puts the administration a step closer to its goal of emptying the detention center as much as possible before the end of Obama’s presidency, though it will be impossible to transfer those who can’t be released to the U.S. and close Gitmo without support from Congress.
Mauritania has taken two other detainees: Mohammad Lameen Sidi Mohammad in September 2007 and Ahamed Abdel Aziz in October 2015, according to data compiled by the New York Times.
Counting Slahi, 47 detainees have left Guantanamo Bay so far in 2016. The last transfer saw 15 detainees transferred to the United Arab Emirates in August, the largest transfer of Gitmo detainees during Obama’s presidency.
