JURIST - Paper Chase: US transfers 3 Guantanamo detainees to Slovakia

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced [press release] Monday that three Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees have been transferred to Slovakia. Slovakia announced [JURIST report] last week that it would accept the detainees, in what was widely seen as an endorsement of US president Barack Obama's foreign policy. The DOJ made this statement about the transfer:

The identities of these three individuals are being withheld at the request of the Government of Slovakia for security and privacy reasons. The United States is grateful to the Government of Slovakia for its willingness to support US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

The latest transfers follow a series of other recent detainee transfers to Algeria and other countries [JURIST reports].

The Obama administration had planned to close Guantanamo Bay by January 22, 2010, but has been stymied by opposition from Congress and the recent suspension of detainee transfers to Yemen [JURIST report]. In November, the Center for American Progress [advocacy website] issued a report [JURIST report] blaming missteps by the Obama administration for the delay in closing the facility.