Four Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to Afghanistan.
Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani and Mohammed Zahir will be moved from the detention center in Cuba to the custody of the government of Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Saturday.
The reason for the release lies in what was found by the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force, part of an executive order by President Obama in 2009. As a result of the review, these men “were unanimously approved for transfer by the six departments and agencies comprising the task force,” according to the Pentagon.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, an organization that has been legally challenging Guantanamo Bay for nearly 13 years, praised the release. CCR’s lead counsel had been working on Shawali Khan’s case for years.
“The Afghanistan conflict has been the longest in U.S. history, and under U.S. and international law, including the laws of war, the remaining detainees must be released without delay,” the group said in a statement.
132 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay.
In May, five Taliban members being held in Guantanamo were traded for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held by a Taliban network in Afghanistan for five years in May.
Obama then released more detainees in late November, including four al Qaeda fighters from Yemen.
“If just one U.S. soldier loses their life over these transfers, we will have failed in our duty to the American people,” outgoing House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., said about the release.
Obama has still been pondering executive action to close the detention facility since October, a promise he made in 2008 that remains unmet.
