President Barack Obama is expected to lift a ban on sending detainees from Guantanamo to Yemen in what is thought to be a step toward closing the controversial prison camp. Efforts at closing the prison have been thwarted in the past due to difficulty in finding a place to transfer the detainees to, according to Fox News.
Lifting the ban to transport prisoners to Yemen will be a key step toward the closure of the prison. 90 of the 166 detainees are from Yemen and 56 of them have been cleared for transfer, according to the Miami Herald.
Since his first inauguration Obama has made closing Guantanamo Bay a priority, within his first week in office he signed an executive order to do so, but has been unable to follow through. Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have fought against having detainees moved into the United States. The budget law that allowed the government to continue operating contains a provision prohibiting any funds to be used to transfer detainees to the U.S. or any of its territories. The law also bans funds being used to build or refurbish any existing U.S. facilities in order to house detainees, according to Fox News.
The facility at Guantanamo has come under heightened scrutiny lately because of a prison wide hunger strike. A Navy spokesman told the Miami Herald that as of Thursday 103 were considered to be on hunger strike and that 32 of the hunger strikers are being forced fed.
When President Obama makes his first national security themed speech of his second term later today he is expected to "reiterate his strong commitment toward closing the detention facility at Guantanamo as a part of our effort to align our counter-terrorism strategy with our values," a source told the Miami Herald.
An aide to Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Cali., told the Huffington Post that many lawmakers object to closing the prison out of fears that released detainees will find their way back into fighting against the U.S.
The closure of the prison may not be happening in the short term; this week the Pentagon requested $450 million from Congress in order to maintain and upgrade the prison facility, according to the Huffington Post.
