The Pentagon has announced transfer of two Libyan nationals from the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention center to Senegal.
"The United States appreciates the generous assistance of the government of Senegal as the United States continues its efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters yesterday.
Earlier in the day, Department of Defense announced the transfer of Salem Abdu Salam Ghereby and Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjour Umar from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Senegal.
The announcement, which came in the backdrop of US President Barack Obama's announcement that he was submitting a four-point plan to the Congress to permanently close the terrorist detention facility, reduced the total number of detainees to 89.
"The US is very grateful to our partner, the Republic of Senegal, for offering humanitarian resettlement to two individuals formerly in Department of Defense custody at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility," Secretary of State John Kerry said.
"As the President has repeatedly made clear, the Administration is determined to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," he said.
The continued operation of the detention facility weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and serving as a propaganda tool for violent extremists, he said.
"We are taking all possible steps to reduce the detainee population at Guantanamo and to close the detention facility in a responsible manner that protects our national security," Kerry said.
The White House alleged that the Republican-majority Congress is preventing the Administration from preventing the closer of Gitmo.
"Congress is focused on preventing the transfer of those detainees to any state in the United States. Now of course, Congress' position is rather ironic, because there are already dozens of convicted terrorists that are currently serving prison time in the United States, on US soil, in US prisons," Earnest said.
"The administration has forcefully made the case that the ability of our criminal justice system to prosecute those individuals and hold them accountable for their crimes in a way that is consistent with our values, actually does enhance our national security," he said.
"What also enhances our national security is detaining those individuals in prisons where they cannot pose a future threat to the US national security. So, we found a mechanism for handling these kinds of cases responsibly. That's why the case that is made by members of Congress, is frankly inconsistent with available evidence," he added.
"When we know that continuing to detain these individuals at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that is inconsistent with our values and does give extremist organizations the kind of propaganda victory and recruiting tool that they've already used effectively. And why would we continue to provide that to them, makes no sense to me," he said.
