The Obama administration has released nine more prisoners from Gitmo, and they have been sent to Saudi Arabia instead of their home country of Yemen.
The Pentagon released a statement Saturday on the prisoners' release and how it coincides with the Obama administration’s efforts to release “low-risk” prisoners from the Cuba-based detention facility.
In the statement, the Pentagon said, “The United States is grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.”
However, these “low-risk” prisoners were not sent back to their native country of Yemen due to the country's instability and the potential for the prisoners to resume their terrorist activities.
According to the New York Times, the Yemeni prisoners were sent to Saudi Arabia because the Arab kingdom is more stable, and prisoners transfered there will run less risk of being re-radicalized. In fact, Saudi Arabia actually has a rehab facility that helps repatriate ex-Saudi terrorists back into society.
The transfer of these nine prisoners marks a long-time effort by U.S. officials to convince the Saudis to accept some of the released Gitmo prisoners.
There are 80 prisoners left at Gitmo, including 26 men scheduled for release by the end of the summer.