The Obama Administration pressed forward this week with the release of five additional prisoners from the detention camp at the U.S. military installation in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The prisoners, all considered ‘medium risk’, were released to Kazakhstan rather than to their home countries of Tunisia and Yemen, according to FOX News. This was to mitigate concerns that unrest in those countries could present additional risk to both the prisoners and U.S. personnel.
Most of the five had been captured by American military in terrorist training camps or in association with known terrorist leaders and after being held for as many as a dozen years after 9/11 were deemed not worthy of particular conviction.
The move continue to increase the heat on the White House from both sides of the political divide. Those from the left continue to argue that the prison should be shut down, and those from the right who argue that releasing known terrorists presents the risk that they will simply rejoin forces like Al Qaeda.
