The Biden administration abruptly halted plans to transfer 11 detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Oman days after Hamas's brutal ambush against Israel on October 7, 2023, citing concerns about the political optics, unnamed sources told NBC News.
They claimed that the detainees are citizens of Yemen or those who have ties to that country. The Biden administration notified Congress in October that the transfer would take place, but the process was called off at the last minute.
The decision to stop the transfer was reportedly the result of members of Congress, primarily Democrats close to President Joe Biden, privately expressing alarm over the timing.
With the White House yet to set a new date for the transfer, the detainees remain at Guantanamo with no clarity on when, or if, the process will happen – something that the sources said "could become a human rights concern."
The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, opened on January 11, 2002, to house inmates from the US "war on terror," which was unleashed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
In 2009, then-US President Barack Obama signed an executive order to shut down the infamous military prison, but Congress refused to finance the closure.
Obama's successor, Donald Trump, suspended his executive order, though no new inmates were brought to Gitmo. The Biden administration also pledged to close down the detention facility, but never set a deadline.