The US yesterday released a suspected Al Qaeda propagandist to the government of Kuwait, leaving 104 inmates at the US naval prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Defence Department announced the repatriation of Faez Mohamed Ahmed al Kandari, a Kuwaiti who had been held at Guantanamo for 13 years, in a statement. It said his detention “does not remain necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the US”.
Kandari, 38, was suspected of being a propagandist and also may have served as “spiritual adviser” to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to a US Department of Defence profile.
Kandari’s lawyer, Eric Lewis of the Washington firm Lewis Baach PLLC, said Kandari was transferred yesterday to Kuwait, where he will undergo a medical examination and be put into a rehabilitation programme to help him reintegrate into society.
“Mr Al Kandari is delighted to be going home and reuniting with his beloved parents and family after all these years away,” Lewis said.
He said Kandari was the last of 12 Kuwaitis who had been at Guantanamo, which the George W Bush administration established as a prison for foreigners captured in its “war on terrorism” after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
General John F Kelly, outgoing commander of the US Southern Command, said at a Pentagon briefing yesterday that more Guantanamo inmates would be released this month but did not elaborate.
“If they go back to the fight, we’ll probably kill them,” Kelly said.
Kandari’s release came after the parole-style Periodic Review Board determined in September that his detention was no longer necessary.
The board, established by President Barack Obama in 2011, is comprised of six intelligence and national security departments and agencies. After detainees are approved for transfer, the US government has to find countries to take them and provide the security arrangements.
Obama, who campaigned in 2008 on a pledge to close the Guantanamo prison, views it as a damaging symbol of detainee abuse and detention without charge that he inherited from Bush. He is still working on a plan to close it, despite opposition from the Republican-controlled Congress.
A few days ago,  the Pentagon announced two Yemeni detainees were transferred to Ghana and Kandari’s transfer leaves 104 inmates at the facility. The day before his release, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said 46 of those remaining had been approved for transfer.