Biden administration transfers Guantanamo detainee to Morocco, lowering prisoner count to 39

Guantanamo Bay
(Image credit: Thomas Watkins/AFP/Getty Images)

The Biden administration on Monday released the second Guantanamo Bay detainee since former President Barack Obama left office in 2017, including a Saudi detainee transferred to a Saudi prison under in 2018 under a plea deal. The transfer of Abdul Latif Nasser, 56, to Morocco was negotiated in 2016, near the end of the Obama administration, but former President Donald Trump halted efforts to shrink the number of prisoners at the U.S. military base in Cuba.

There are now 39 detainees at Guantanamo, including 11 charged with war crimes, 28 in limbo, and 10 who have been cleared for transfer to a country that agrees to certain security guarantees. Biden has revived a federal interagency parole-type system to evaluate whether detainees can safely be remanded to custody of another country, and the renewed review panel cleared five of the 10 detainees now awaiting security deals with foreign governments.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.