The coming weeks will see the transfer of more detainees from Guantanamo Bay despite continued Republican opposition, according to defense and congressional officials.
Through the assistance of the Pentagon, another set of detainees will be transferred in December after five were already moved last week, The Wall Street Journal reported, adding that defense officials declined to disclose further information on their numbers or nationalities.
The transfers comes on the heels of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's resignation, who has been criticized for moving way too slowly to certify detainees for release, administration officials told The WSJ.
At a recent hearing, Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, complained of the Obama administration's increasing notifications to lawmakers on future transfers from the detainment facility.
Many Republicans have been opposed to the move since President Obama announced that he would close the controversial detention center, a promise he made before taking office.
But senior officials at the White House are reportedly impatient as the president's term in office draws nearer to its end with the promise of the closure of Guantanamo unfulfilled, Fox News reported. So instead, House and Senate negotiators are debating whether to revise the rules governing transfers as a part of this year's defense authorization bill, which sets Pentagon policy.
After the Obama administration made a decision in May to move five Taliban detainees out of the camp as part of the deal to secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held in Pakistan by a militant group, much stricter restrictions on transfers have been proposed in the House's version of the measure.
Bergdahl was captured in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, in unclear circumstances, with his release initially sparking euphoria in the U.S., which then quickly transpired into a political debate over whether he had abandoned his post and whether the prisoner swap should have gone ahead.
Meanwhile, a U.S. military nurse also made national headlines in July for refusing to conduct forced feedings of inmates who were on an extended hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay.
Hunger strikes at Guantanamo began shortly after the prison opened in 2002, with force-feeding starting in early 2006 following a mass hunger strike. A new strike began in February 2013, with more than 100 of 154 prisoners in custody participating at one point, according to the Associated Press. The U.S. military, however, has justified its actions as humane and necessary to keep the inmates alive.
