Men due to leave Gitmo under Obama seem stuck under Trump
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Abdellatif Nasser got what he thought was the best news possible in the summer of 2016: One of his lawyers called him at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and told him that the U.S. decided he no longer posed a threat and could go home to Morocco.
The prisoner allowed himself to get excited, to think about Moroccan food, imagining he would be home in no time. “I’ve been here 14 years,” he said at the time. “A few months more is nothing.”
But his optimism turned out to be misplaced. A diplomatic agreement that would have allowed him to go free was not returned by Morocco until Dec. 28, eight days too late to meet a deadline to be among the last prisoners to leave under President Barack Obama.
Now, he is one of five prisoners who the U.S. cleared to go but whose freedom is in doubt under President Donald Trump.