The Pentagon said Sunday it has released six detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Uruguay — the latest in a series of recent transfers that is rapidly emptying the prison.
Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Hussain Shaabaan, Omar Mahmoud Faraj, Abdul Bin Mohammed Abis Ourgy, Mohammed Tahanmatan, and Jihad Diyab all were unanimously approved by a review board for release, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Ahjam, Shaabaan, Faraj and Diyab are al Qaeda members from Syria, according to detainee records. Ahjam, Shaabaan and Faraj were captured by Pakistani authorities in December 2001 after fighting U.S. troops at Tora Bora in Afghanistan, and Diyab, identified as an al Qaeda document forger, was captured by Pakistani police in April 2002 and a safe house in Lahore. All four were later handed over to U.S. custody.
Tahanmatan, a Palestinian, was arrested by Pakistani authorities in March 2002 and handed over to U.S. authorities. He had previously been recommended for transfer out of Guantanamo in 2007 and 2008.
Ourgy is from Tunisia.
Outgoing Uruguayan President Jose Mujica said his country had agreed to resettle the men as refugees as a humanitarian gesture.
President Obama has vowed to close the prison at Guantanamo, and his administration recently has accelerated its efforts to transfer detainees, setting up a fight with Republicans, who oppose the move.
Sunday’s announcement follows the release of seven other detainees last month. Because most of the remaining 136 detainees cannot be prosecuted, that would mean either sending them home, finding third countries to take them or finding another reason to keep holding them.
Republicans in Congress have strongly objected to the recent releases, saying the detainees remain dangerous, especially in light of stepped-up U.S. military action in the Middle East to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Outgoing House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., on Sunday criticized the administration’s rush to transfer detainees, saying many of the countries receiving them do not have the capability to properly monitor their activities.
“What we have found in the past is that this doesn’t work very well,” he told CNN’s Candy Crowley.
This story was updated at approximately 9:40 a.m.
