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2023-02-24 India-Pakistan
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US transfers two Guantanamo Bay detainees to Pakistan
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[GEO.TV] The United States has transferred two brothers from the Guantanamo Bay US detention facility in Cuba to Pakistain, bringing the total number of people held at Guantanamo down to 32, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
The Guantanamo camp was established by Republican President George W Bush in 2002 to house foreign terrorism suspects following the 2001 hijacked plane attacks on New York and the Pentagon that killed about 3,000 people.
It came to symbolise the excesses of the US "war on terror" because of harsh interrogation methods that critics have said amounted to torture.
There were 40 detainees when President Joe The Big Guy Biden
 ...46th president of the U.S. The nincompoop who dumped Afghanistan. The copier doesdn't exist that could reelect him....
, a Democrat, took office in 2021. Biden has said he hopes to close the facility. The federal government is barred by law from transferring Guantanamo detainees to US mainland prisons.
On Thursday, the Pentagon announced the repatriation of Abdul Rabbani and Mohammed Rabbani to Pakistain.
Both were arrested in 2002. Abdul Rabbani was an al-Qaeda controller while Mohammed Rabbani was a financial and travel controller for prominent al-Qaeda leaders, according to the Pentagon's website.
"The United States appreciates the willingness of the Government of Pakistain and other partners to support ongoing US efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility," the Pentagon said in a statement.
A total of 32 detainees remain, of whom 18 are eligible for transfer, the Pentagon said in its statement.
Reacting to the development, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan of Jamat-e-Islami welcomed their transfer to Pakistain, saying the two brothers were detained without any case.
| ...no case except being Al Qaeda Big Turbans, but no one objects to that nowadays. |
"Another good news. Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani and Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani have reached Islamabad airport after being freed from Guantanamo Bay. They were imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for 21 years despite being innocent. There was no trial, no court proceedings, no charges against them. Congratulations on their release. Thank you Senate of Pakistain."
| Update from Al Monitor at 9:50 p.m. ET — late in the day, but not worth giving you an entire article to read tomorrow, dear Reader: |
Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani, 55, and Mohammed Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani, 53, were captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002 and held in CIA custody in Afghanistan before they were transferred to the offshore US prison in Cuba in 2004.
The brothers were born in Saudi Arabia and are ethnically Burmese.
| This makes their Pakistani citizenship puzzling, but I suppose if Pakistan wants them, they all deserve to enjoy the result. |
Their departure brings the remaining number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to 32. At its peak in 2003, the prison held nearly 680 prisoners.
Shortly after taking office, the Biden administration said it planned to close the controversial detention center, which opened in 2002 and has since been used to house more than 700 foreign inmates suspected of ties to al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Earlier this month, Pakistani detainee Majid Khan was transferred to Belize following the completion of his sentence.
Intense pushback from Congress prevented former President Barack Obama from making good on a 2008 campaign promise to close Guantanamo, despite an executive order issued on his second day in office.
Former President Donald Trump signed a 2018 executive order to keep it open, citing the risk of recidivism among the prisoners. Just one detainee was released under his administration — a Saudi man who pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges and was transferred to Saudi Arabian custody in 2018 to serve out the remainder of his sentence. 
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Posted by Fred 2023-02-24 00:54||
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