Fawzi Al-Odah Transferred from GTMO to Kuwait

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba A Kuwait aircraft lifted off from this remote Navy base with a long-held captive before dawn Wednesday, sealing the first repatriation of a former so-called “forever prisoner” whose dangerousness was downgraded by a U.S. government parole board.

Fawzi al Odah, 37, was held for nearly 13 years at Guantánamo, starting off in the crude outdoor prison of barbed wire and chain-linked fences called Camp X-Ray. He was never charged with a crime. His release was the first since President Barack Obama’s controversial May 31 transfer of five Afghan Taliban prisoners to the custody of Qatar in exchange for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a war prisoner of a Taliban affiliate.

It also came on the heels of midterm elections roiled by debate over Obama’s Guantánamo closure ambitions. In Kansas, for example, incumbent GOP Sen. Pat Roberts campaigned for reelection on a pledge to prevent relocation of Guantánamo detainees to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, a prison for U.S. military criminals.