Parole of bin Laden bodyguard means 35 of 91 prisoners approved for transfer

When President Obama announced he’d be visiting Cuba sometime next month, many wondered if he’d have the deed to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in his briefcase. The parole board has now lessened the remaining population by one, approving the release of one of Osama bin Laden’s Yemeni bodyguards.

Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald reports today that the Pentagon-run national security parole board is trying to accelerate its reviews, and has approved the release of Majid Ahmed.

Breaking: Gitmo parole board OKs release of ‘Bin Laden bodyguard,' 35 of 91 now cleared. https://t.co/v1P2GOZqKA pic.twitter.com/1zKBHxyfTf

— Carol Rosenberg (@carolrosenberg) February 20, 2016

Rosenberg adds that the parole board has six more hearings scheduled between now and May, and the release of Ahmed, 35, means that “of Guantánamo’s 91 captives, 35 are approved for transfer, 10 are in war crimes proceeding and the rest are either forever prisoners or candidates for war crimes trial.”

Ahmed, of Yemen, arrived at Guantánamo on January 16, 2002, the week the detention center opened. He became one of bin Laden’s bodyguards a month before 9/11.