U.S. agrees in principle to release 100 detainees to minimum security site
Monday, May 18, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
WASHINGTON Ñ The United States is close to an agreement to transfer Yemeni Al Qaida detainees from Guantanamo to a minimum security facility in Saudi Arabia.
Officials said the Defense Department has reached agreement in principle with Saudi Arabia and Yemen for the release of more than 100 Al Qaida detainees.
They said the suspected Al Qaida agents, all from Yemen and detained at the U.S. Navy prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be sent to Saudi Arabia for what was termed rehabiliation.
Officials said the Yemenis would be held in a minimum security facility, but under electronic monitor at all times. In 2008, several Saudis in the rehabilitation center escaped and fled to Yemen. The center was said to have also contained 117 Saudis inmates released from Guantanamo.
"We have been discussing what they would do in Saudi and the security measures that would prevent them from escaping," an official said.
On May 6, Defense Secretary Robert Gates discussed the proposed release of the Yemenis during his visit to Saudi Arabia. Gates said the United States was close to a formal agreement with both Riyad and Sanaa. But other officials said Yemen has not accepted the proposal.
"I didn't ask them [Saudis] to do anything, and they didn't volunteer," Gates said.
Under the proposal, the Yemeni detainees would be sent from Guantanamo to at least two Saudi centers used for the rehabilitation of Al Qaida members in the kingdom. The facilities were identified as the Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef Center and Al Munasaha.
In the Saudi facilities, the officials said, the Yemenis would attend lectures on Islam and hear testimony of Al Qaida's exploitation of Muslims. They said most of the Al Qaida members sent to these facilities ended their term by disavowing any loyalty to the Islamic insurgency movement.
President Barack Obama has ordered all of the Islamic detainees at Guantanamo to be released over the next year. Yemeni nationals comprise the largest nationality of the 241 Al Qaida inmates at the facility.