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Charlie Savage, The New York TimesWASHINGTON — The government of Yemen on Saturday took custody of six detainees formerly held for years without trial at the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to a senior Obama administration official and others involved in the process.
The transfers, which followed the repatriation of another Yemeni detainee in September, represent a test run for a policy that the administration hopes could eventually make possible a sharp reduction in the population at the prison, which President Obama is trying to close.
About 91 Yemenis remain at the facility, making up the largest bloc of the population of about 200 detainees. Though 14 Yemenis were repatriated from Guantánamo during the Bush administration, concerns about the Yemeni government’s ability and commitment in fighting Al Qaeda, which has long found a haven in that nation, has made officials reluctant to repatriate Yemenis in large numbers.
Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University law professor who was deputy secretary of defense for detainee affairs in the Bush administration, said that the move offered some risk for the Obama administration because “in the past Yemen has failed to keep even high-profile terrorist suspects in prison for long, and because it has a weak government that at times has wavered in its anti-Al Qaeda agenda. There is reason to be cautious.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/world/americas/20gitmo.html
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