Obama continues to eat away at the number of detainees in Guantanamo Bay as four more were sent “home” to Afghanistan after being held for more than a decade.
Watch below:
The men were flown to Kabul overnight aboard a U.S. military plane and released to Afghan authorities, the first such transfer of its kind to the war-torn country since 2009, according to a U.S. official.
Obama promised to shut the internationally condemned prison when he took office nearly six years ago, citing the damage it inflicted on America’s image around the world. But he has been unable to do so, partly because of obstacles posed by the U.S. Congress.
With a recent trickle of releases, including the transfer of six prisoners to Uruguay earlier this month, Guantanamo’s detainee population has been gradually whittled down to 132.
The repatriation of the four Afghans, identified as “low-level detainees” who were cleared for transfer long ago and are not considered security risks in their homeland, had been in the pipeline for months.
I’m sure they’re so grateful for the airplane ride back to Afghanistan they’ll forget all about that decade in captivity and aren’t harboring any ill will towards Americans. Ahem.