Biden Admin Nearly Halves Guantanamo Bay Population with Overnight 'Secret Mission'
President Joe Biden's pardons and commutations have already made his lame-duck transitional period notorious.
Now, in what The New York Times described as a "secret operation" early Monday, he's nearly halved the population of the country's most notorious prison for terrorists and terrorism suspects.
He sent Guantanamo Bay prisoners back to the Middle East.
The transfer was announced in an after-the-fact news release from the Defense Department, which stated that 11 Yemeni nationals had been shipped from the American military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Sultanate of Oman.
All of the men are former members of the terrorist group al-Qaida who were captured in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to NPR.
Two of the men are suspected of having served as bodyguards to the now-deservedly deceased al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, according to the New York Post.
In a post on the social media platform X, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called the move "utterly shameful."
She was replying to a post by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who'd used the same words to describe reports that President-elect Donald Trump planned to pardon some of those convicted for their role in the Capitol incursion of Jan. 6, 2021.
And there was plenty of opposition elsewhere, too.
"He’s trying to cause as much damage as possible on his way out," the conservative LibsofTikTok X account commented.
"Infuriating," wrote conservative commentator Nick Sorter.
Conservative radio host Jimmy Failla took a more comical perspective:
"The bad news is Biden just released 11 Guantanamo Bay detainees," he wrote. "The good news is The View just lost its last 11 viewers."
The Times reported that the transfer left the prison -- a culturally and politically charged institution popularly known as "Gitmo" -- with just 15 prisoners, in two buildings with room for 250.
It is the fewest it's held since it opened with 20 prisoners in January 2002, according to the Times.
The Biden administration was on the cusp of releasing them to Oman back in October 2023 when the plan was "derailed" by objections in Congress, according to the Times.
And there are still objections in Congress.
Biden faces criticism for ‘totally reckless’ release of Gitmo prisoners: Another thing for Trump to ‘clean up’
US Frees 11 Guantánamo Detainees After Two Decades
Newsweek/Newsweek
US Frees 11 Guantánamo Detainees After Two Decades
Biden administration to move 11 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Oman
- bb1961
- Yesterday, 08:54 PM
- lustylad
- Yesterday, 10:20 PM
I've got a better idea...
Remember the 9/11 "jumpers"? Those poor desperate World Trade Center office workers who jumped 90+ stories to their deaths as the hot raging fires became unbearable?
I would take each one of these al queda terrorist fucks up in a helicopter hovering 900 feet above Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan. Then shove each one out. Let them experience "martyrdom" in exactly the same way the 9/11 jumpers died.
Karma is a bitch, ain't it?
Remember the 9/11 "jumpers"? Those poor desperate World Trade Center office workers who jumped 90+ stories to their deaths as the hot raging fires became unbearable?
I would take each one of these al queda terrorist fucks up in a helicopter hovering 900 feet above Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan. Then shove each one out. Let them experience "martyrdom" in exactly the same way the 9/11 jumpers died.
Karma is a bitch, ain't it?