The White House is making plans to transfer more detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay despite the mounting political furor over the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, officials said Tuesday.
Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said the White House was “making progress on a number of additional promising opportunities” to transfer more prisoners and that officials were reviewing Yemeni detainees “on a case-by-case basis.”
“While we do not generally discuss transfers before they take place, we are fully committed to implementing the president’s direction that we transfer detainees to the greatest extent possible, consistent with national security and our humane-treatment policy, as we work toward closing the facility at Guantanamo Bay,” she said.
Hayden said 17 inmates had been moved out of Guantanamo in the last 13 months, including the five former Taliban officials transferred to Qatar in the swap for Bergdahl.
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