The Obama administration has transferred SIX terrorists being held at the Guantánamo prison camp to the country of Oman.  All six men are from Yemen and have been held since the early days of the war in Afghanistan.

Washington Times:

Six men long held at Guantanamo Bay arrived Saturday in Oman, the first movement of detainees out of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects in five months as Congress considers new restrictions on transfers.

The six detainees — all from Oman’s war-torn Mideast neighbor Yemen — boarded a flight from the U.S. prison in Cuba on Friday, bringing Guantanamo’s population down to 116. The move means President Barack Obama has now transferred more than half of the 242 detainees who were at Guantanamo when he was sworn into office after campaigning to close it.

Yet Obama remains far from achieving his closure goal, with just a year and a half left in office, final transfer approvals coming slowly from the Pentagon and lawmakers threatening to make movement out even harder. The transfers to Oman are the first to be given final approval by Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who has been on the job four months.

The six new transfers include Emad Abdullah Hassan, who has been on hunger strikes since 2007 in protest of his confinement without charge since 2002. In court filings protesting force-feeding practices, Hassan said detainees have been force-fed up to a gallon (3.75 liters) at a time of nutrients and water. The U.S. accuses him of being one of many bodyguards to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and of being part of a group planning to attack NATO and American troops after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

One of the other former detainees was also a bodyguard of bin Laden.  Two others were Taliban fighters, while another had a connection to a radical religious leader.

Congress is looking to limit these transfers, partly because the recidivism rate of Gitmo detainees who have been released is so high.  Many in Congress don't think the Pentagon is taking all the precautions it can in determining who should be released.  It is doubtful that the hardcore terrorists left at Guantánamo are fit subjects for this kind of transfer program, and Congress would like to dampen the enthusiasm in the administration for releasing these terrorists for any reason.