Obama administration speeds up transfer of Guantanamo detainees

Washington: The Obama administration has begun shipping newly cleared Guantanamo Bay inmates abroad.

Three were sent to Saudi Arabia at the end of the week, as the US government seeks to regain momentum in its effort to close the prison camp at the US naval base in Cuba.

The prospects for any transfers of Guantanamo inmates to the mainland US have dimmed in recent weeks as Congress acted to block funding to pay for the moves. And foreign countries have been hesitant to take even cleared detainees who were deemed not to pose security threats.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration has not abandoned the possibility of releasing detainees in the US, but he added that national security considerations would govern any moves.

"We're not going to make any decisions about transfer or release that threatens the security of the country," Gibbs said at the end of a week in which nine detainees were transferred under high security to foreign nations, and one to the United States to face trial.

Gibbs said the release of those detainees showed "marked progress" and other decisions were being made on a case-by-case basis.

President Barack Obama said last month that the cases of 50 detainees had been reviewed - and the administration said 48 of them were waiting for release to foreign nations.

Authorities announced on Friday that three detainees - Khalid Sa'ad Mohammad, Abdul Aziz Karim Salim Al Noofayaee and Ahmad Zeid Salim Zuheir - had been sent home to Saudi Arabia. Zuheir had had been on continual hunger strike at Guantanamo for almost four years to protest his detention.

The Justice Department said the trio will be subject to judicial review in Saudi Arabia before they participate in a "rehabilitation" programme administered by the Saudi government.

US officials said they were close to a deal with Saudi Arabia and Yemen under which Saudi Arabia would take about 100 Yemeni detainees and place them in Saudi-run terrorist rehabilitation centres.

The officials would not say how many Yemenis might be transferred or when the agreement might be finalised.

Negotiations on the fate of the Yemeni inmates have been under way for months, stalled over a Saudi demand that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh publicly endorse the proposal, the officials said. Saleh has refused to do so in the past.