The U.S. government's recent decision to send 15 Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United Arab Emirates is the largest and most recent detainee transfer under President Barack Obama. The transfer, however, doesn't hide the fact that Guantanamo ("Gitmo") remains a stain on the reputation of the United States.
Gitmo was opened in January 2002, under the administration of President George W. Bush, for the purpose of locking up foreign terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks and subsequent U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. Some 779 men have been brought there since it opened. Nine prisoners have died at the facility. While most of them were released by Bush, 161 were released during Obama's administration. Only 61 prisoners remain in Guantanamo, of which only seven are facing criminal charges.
Both Republicans and some Democrats claim that Guantanamo prisoners are too dangerous to keep on U.S. soil and reject the idea of bringing them to the U.S. for trial. Keeping an individual locked up for years under administrative detention is in itself a judicial travesty, however, and maintaining such indefinite deprivation of liberty without bringing criminal charges is a gross human rights violation.