- Two prisoners of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility were transferred to Senegal, the Department of Defense announced Monday.
Salem Abu Salam Ghereby and Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjour Umar, both Libyans, were cleared for transfer by the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force, which "examined a number of factors, including security issues," the Defense Department statement said, in recommending their relocation. With their transfer, 89 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay.
President Barack Obama presented a plan for closing the detention facility, a longstanding goal of his administration, on Feb. 23. He noted that it cost the United States $450 million to keep it open in 2015, and that it will cost $200 million a year to keep it open going forward for fewer than 100 detainees.
Obama's plan included transfer of most detainees to other countries, with those regarded as too dangerous to transfer to be relocated to unnamed prisons in the United States.