Biden Admin Nearly Halves Guantanamo Bay Population with Overnight ‘Secret Mission’
In a notable move during his transitional period, President Joe Biden significantly reduced teh population of Guantanamo Bay prison by transferring 11 Yemeni nationals back to Oman. This transfer, reported to be a secret operation, involved individuals who were former members of al-qaida and captured after the 9/11 attacks. The decision met with bipartisan criticism, especially from conservatives who view the release as a risky endorsement of terrorism. GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene labelled the action as “utterly shameful,” highlighting concerns about national security as these detainees were sent back to the Middle East. Despite objections from Congress and public outcry, the Biden administration proceeded with the transfer, leaving Gitmo with only 15 prisoners—the fewest since its opening in 2002. The transfer raised further debates regarding the implications for both domestic and international security in the current geopolitical climate.
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.
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.
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.
It is utterly shameful that today the Biden administration released 11 Yemeni terrorists from Guantanamo Bay and sent them back to Oman.
Releasing Islamic terrorists who would kill every American in the name of their god is a dangerous endorsement of terrorism.
It is wrong. It… https://t.co/zsuaAvLXeH
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) January 6, 2025
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.
JUST IN: Joe Biden has released 11 Yemeni t*rrorists from Guantánamo Bay who were captured in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
He’s trying to cause as much damage as possible on his way out. pic.twitter.com/aynURQRIiJ
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 6, 2025
“Infuriating,” wrote conservative commentator Nick Sorter.
#BREAKING: Joe Biden has just RELEASED 11 YEMENI TERRORlSTS from Guantanamo Bay just days before leaving office
Infuriating.
These terr*rists were captured in the aftermath of 9/11, and despite the rapidly deteriorating state of the Middle East, Biden decided to send them… pic.twitter.com/42w3xIX2Y7
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 6, 2025
Conservative radio host Jimmy Failla took a more comical perspective:
The bad news is Biden just released 11 Guantanamo Bay detainees. The good news is The View just lost its last 11 viewers.
— Jimmy Failla (@jimmyfailla) January 7, 2025
“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.
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