Since Biden took office: First Guantanamo prisoner released

For the first time, the government of US President Biden has released a prisoner from the controversial Guantanamo prison camp and brought him home. 39 people are currently being held in the camp.

Around six months after taking office, US President Joe Biden’s government transferred a prisoner from the Guantanamo prison camp to his home country for the first time. Abdul Latif Nasir was brought to Morocco because he no longer posed a threat to US national security, the Defense Department said.

Obama wanted to close the camp

39 prisoners remain in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The camp was set up after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 under Republican President George W. Bush to detain suspected Islamist terrorists without trial. Bush’s successor, Democrat Barack Obama, wanted to close it, but failed due to opposition in the US Congress. The Republican Donald Trump, in turn, wanted to keep the camp open.

Now Obama’s former Vice President, today’s President Biden, is trying to close again. The US government is relying on a “considered and thorough process” to “responsibly reduce the number of prisoners,” said the State Department.

Nasir was due to be released in 2016

Nasir, who was transferred to Morocco, was directly affected by the political back-and-forth in the USA: a commission set up under Obama recommended his dismissal in 2016. However, the necessary steps could no longer be taken before the change of government – and Trump strictly rejected dismissals from the camp.

Nasir first received news of his planned release in the summer of 2016 when one of his lawyers called him at the detention center and told him the US had decided he was no longer a threat and could go home. He thought he would return to Morocco soon: “I’ve been here for 14 years,” he said at the time. “A few more months are nothing.”

Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan

Nasir became a member of a non-violent but illegal Moroccan Islamic group in the 1980s, according to his Pentagon files. In 1996 he was recruited to fight in Chechnya, but ended up in Afghanistan, where he was trained in an al-Qaeda camp. After fighting against US troops there, he was captured and sent to Guantánamo in May 2002.

An unidentified military official appointed to represent Nasir before the examination board said he studied math, computer science and English at Guantanamo. Nasir deeply regrets his past actions and is confident that he can be reintegrated into society.

Imprisonment or release in Morocco

The Pentagon did not provide any information on whether Nasir would remain detained in Morocco or be released. Morocco has given security guarantees and promised “humane treatment” for Nasir, it said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked Morocco for its willingness to accept Nasir and appealed to other countries to also accept their citizens who had fought for terrorist organizations abroad.