Guantanamo detainees take part in dawn prayers inside the detention centre in 2009. Photo: AP
The release of detainees from the United States prison at Guantanamo Bay has become a common enough occurrence this year that the process runs predictably predictably and smoothly.
This weekend it was the turn of six men, who arrived in Uruguay as refugees on Sunday after 12 years at the detention centre in the US Navy base in Cuba.
The exterior of Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Photo: Reuters
After a detainee is cleared for release the US and a potential host nation enter negotiations.
When an agreement has been reached the detainee is informed and a representative of International Committee of the Red Cross will visit the detainee to ensure he is leaving voluntarily.
The detainee and representatives of the host nation will meet for several interviews in preparation. The detainee might even have language tuition.
Then, about 24 hours before the detainee is due to leave he will be visited by the centre's commanding officer, to tell them they are about to be released. At present that role is held by Army Colonel David Heath.
'I've had some that are very unemotional, passive, and others who have a big smile on their face they are told they are leaving,' he told Fairfax Media during a visit to Guantanamo Bay last week.
After that the detainees to depart are segregated from the rest of the centre's population until a flight arrives for them at the Naval Air Station at the far end of the base. Like everyone else who enters of leaves the center, known as Joint Task Force, the detainees will leave the base for the airfield on a ferry.
The six men who made the trip this weekend - four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian - were held as suspected militants with ties to al Qaeda, but were never charged.
The release prompted criticism from Republican congresspeople who have been successfully resisting President Barack Obama's attempts to close the facility.
'I've been opposed to the notion that we are going to farm out Gitmo to places,' said the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers on Sunday during an interview on CNN's State of the Union.
'What we have found in the past is it doesn't work very well,' he said. 'I don't think that surprises anybody. So I argue that maybe we ought to rethink what we're doing here.'
The men, named as Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Hussain Shaabaan, Omar Mahmoud Faraj, Abdul Bin Mohammed Abis Ourgy, Mohammed Tahanmatan and Jihad Diyab, were cleared for release as far back as 2010, but according to reports the US struggled to find a country to accept them.
More recently the outgoing US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel delayed the men's release, and then they were held up by Uruguayan elections.
With the group's departure there are now 136 detainees being held in three facilities on the base.
Posted by Unknown on Monday, December 8, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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