Of the 166 detainees remaining at the prison, 86 have long been cleared for transfer if security conditions can be met; 56 of them are Yemeni. Mr. Obama had barred any repatriations there for several years due to an insurgency by Al QaedaÂ’s Yemen branch in the Arabian Peninsula, but he recently said he was lifting that ban during a major national-security speech in which he rededicated himself to closing the prison.
Under current law, the secretary of defense must certify that a long list of security conditions have been met before a detainee may be sent to another country. Since Congress enacted the limit in January 2011, transfers of low-level detainees from the prison have dried up.
Lawmakers later gave the Pentagon the power to waive most of those restrictions on a case-by-case basis, but the Obama administration has not exercised that authority.