The US president's moves toward closing the detention facility continues with the release of the detainees who allegedly suffered 14 years of torture in the Cuba-based prison.
"We found homes for the 17," AFP cited an anonymous source as saying, adding that some countries have expressed a readiness to accept ex-Gitmo detainees.
After the transfer, the detention population be down to 90 prisoners.
The head of Amnesty International USA's Security and Human Rights program Naureen Shah responded to Carter's latest statement, calling the decision "overdue."
"Guantánamo has been a blight on the country's human rights record for nearly fourteen years, and this push to close it is long overdue. We're encouraged by the latest news and strongly urge the administration to move ahead with the transfer of all eligible detainees, without delay."
Earlier in December, the US government conceded that it had wrongly imprisoned a man in the controversial facility for 13 years due to a case of mistaken identity.
