Here’s who’s left in Guantanamo Bay

In the waning days of the Biden administration, then-President Joe Biden agreed to the transfer of 11 Guantanamo Bay detainees to Oman, which left 15 remaining, as is still the case with the detention facility nearing the 25th anniversary of its opening.It’s unclear when any of them could be transferred out of the infamous facility, though three are currently eligible.The Pentagon transferred one detainee during President Donald Trump’s first administration, and through nearly half of his second term, not one has been released. The White House declined to comment on whether the president wants to see prisoners transferred out of Guantanamo Bay. Only two of the remaining 12 detainees have been convicted; seven have been charged; and three others are eligible for a Periodic Review Board assessment but not yet for transfer. Not all of them face allegations of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.The seven who have been charged: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed **FILE**Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, is seen shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan in this file photo from March 1, 2003 in this photo obtained by the Associated Press. (AP Photo-File) Mohammed boasted about being a mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. A Pakistani citizen, Mohammed was captured in 2003 and sent to Guantanamo Bay. There, he was held by the CIA for three years at black site facilities, where he was allegedly tortured, before he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. He’s one of five defendants facing capital charges in a military commission for their alleged involvement in the attacks.In late August, a military judge ruled that Mohammed’s 2007 confession to FBI agents was not voluntary and excluded it from evidence in his long-delayed case due to allegations he was tortured before confessing. The judge also set a trial start date of June 5, 2028, for his case. A proposed plea agreement that would have spared Mohammed and two others the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea was ultimately stopped, leaving the case headed toward trial.One of the other five charged in the commission, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, who is Mohammed’s nephew, had self-incriminating statements thrown out as they were a product of torture, while another, Ramzi bin al Shibh was ruled not mentally fit to stand trial and has not been a part of the case for years, but is still in Guantanamo Bay.Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who served at Guantanamo Bay for a year in 2004-05, traveled to the base last year at the start of his tenure, and he visited Mohammed. When asked how he looked, Hegseth said, “I don’t really care,” and he added, “But he’s fine, and I hope he finds justice soon. This is one of the rare things I agree with my predecessor on, Lloyd Austin, that he deserves the death penalty, and I hope he finds it soon, through that system.”Hegseth referenced the 2024 plea deal signed between the Pentagon, Mohammed, and two other defendants, which then-Secretary of Defense Austin pressed to stop.MILITARY JUDGE SETS TRIAL FOR ALLEGED 9/11 MASTERMIND KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMEDMustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi Hawsawi, who is a Saudi citizen, is one of the five detainees facing capital charges on the allegations that he conspired to carry out the 9/11 attacks. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and spent multiple years as a “high-value detainee” in the CIA’s custody. He was brought to the prison as a detainee in 2006. Hawsawi is one of the other two detainees who, along with Mohammed, agreed to plead guilty in exchange for removing the possibility of the death penalty that was later stopped.Walid Bin Attash Bin Attash is a Yemeni citizen who is also facing capital charges before a military commission on the allegations that he conspired in the Sept. 11 attacks. He was captured in 2003 in Pakistan and did not arrive at Guantanamo Bay until 2006 as a “high-value detainee.” He is the third individual who agreed to the revoked guilty plea agreement.Ali Abdul Aziz Ali Ali, better known as Ammar al Baluchi, is the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. He is facing capital charges by the military commission for allegedly conspiring in the 9/11 attacks by helping some of the hijackers with travel arrangements and money transfers. He was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2003 and held by the CIA until 2006, when he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay. He was arraigned in 2012, but his trial, like others, has been mired by lengthy delays.In 2024, lawyers released a single photo of al Baluchi taken by the CIA. The photo, in which he is naked, shows his gaunt, malnourished body. The CIA has long gone to extraordinary lengths to keep images of what took place at black sites during the early years of the Afghanistan war out of the public sphere.A judge previously ruled to suppress his confession because he was tortured.Ramzi bin al Shibh Bin al-Shibh is a Yemeni citizen who is the last of the fifth detainees who were accused in the capital case of conspiring to carry out the 9/11 attack. A judge ruled in 2003 that he was not mentally competent to face trial and removed him from the case. He was captured the year prior in Pakistan and was transferred out of CIA custody to the military at Guantanamo Bay in 2006.Abd al Rahim al Nashiri: FILE – This Nov. 9, 2011, file artist rendering by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin, reviewed by the U.S. military, shows Abd Al Rahim Hussayn Muhammad Al Nashiri, accused of setting up the bombing of the USS Cole, is depicted during his military commissions arraignment at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Guantanamo, Cuba. (AP Photo/Janet Hamlin, File) Nashiri, who is a Saudi citizen, is facing capital charges before a military commission for his alleged involvement in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole off the shore of Yemen. Seventeen American sailors were killed in the attack. He was captured in Dubai in 2002 and arrived at Guantanamo Bay in 2006. His trial is scheduled to start in October. A military judge suppressed a confession he made at Guantanamo Bay after finding that it came after he was tortured by the CIA while held in black sites.Encep Nurjaman Nurjaman, who is better known under the pseudonym of Hambali, is an Indonesian citizen. He is accused of conspiring with two former Guantanamo Bay detainees who have since been repatriated in the plotting of the October 2002 bombing on the island of Bali, which killed more than 200 people. He was also charged in connection with the 2003 bombing at a Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, the next year. He was captured in a joint Thai-U.S. raid in August 2003 and did not arrive at Guantanamo Bay until 2006.The two convicted: Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul Al Bahlul, a Yemeni citizen, is serving a life sentence after a military panel convicted him of three terrorism charges in 2008. Two of the convictions were subsequently overturned on technicalities. Pakistani forces captured him near the border with Afghanistan in December 2001. He was accused of being a propaganda chief for al Qaeda and a media secretary for Osama bin Laden.Abd al Hadi al Iraqi Al Hadi pleaded guilty to commanding Afghanistan insurgents who committed deadly attacks on U.S.-allied forces in 2003 and 2004. He was sentenced in 2024 to the maximum punishment of 30 years in prison, but under a previously agreed-upon plea deal, his sentence ended in 2032. He has a degenerative disc disease and has faced complications from repeated surgery for it. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2007.In the final weeks of the Biden administration, Hadi filed a lawsuit to stop his potential transfer from Guantanamo Bay to an Iraqi prison over concerns of potentially inadequate medical care.Recommended for transfer Muieen A Deen Jamal A Deen Abd al Fusal Abd al Sattar: Abd al-Satter is a law-of-war detainee who was captured by Pakistani forces near the Afghanistan border in December 2001. He was sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2002, shortly after its opening. He has been eligible for transfer since 2010, but he is an ethnic Rohingya Muslim who is stateless, so the U.S. would need to find a third country willing to take him in.Ismail Ali Faraj Ali Bakush Bakushk, a Libyan citizen, became a law-of-war detainee after getting arrested in Pakistan in May 2002. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay months later in 2002. Twenty years later, in 2022, the Period Review Board deemed his ongoing detention unnecessary and recommended that he be sent to another country for resettlement and rehabilitation.Guled Hassan Duran Duran, a Somali citizen, was captured in Djibouti in March 2004. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. The PRB approved his transfer to another country back in 2021. At the time, the review panel approved the release of five men who have been held for years without charge at Guantanamo Bay and he is the only one who was not transferred before Biden left office.Not recommended for transfer Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Husayn Husayn, a Palestinian man who is better known as Abu Zubaydah, was captured in a U.S.-Pakistani raid in Pakistan in 2002. He became the first captured detainee to face the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques, which include waterboarding, sleep deprivation, forced nudity, confinement to small spaces, and extreme isolation. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. He has not been charged. The Periodic Review Board determined, as recently as 2023, that his continued detention was necessary for national security.Mustafa Faraj Masud al Jadid Mohammed: Faraj, who also goes by Abu Faraj al Libi, was considered to be closely tied to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri back before his capture in Pakistan in 2005. He was held in CIA sites for a little more than a year until he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. The period review board determined in 2023 that his detention “remains necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States,” given his “extensive and lengthy history with al-Qaeda, to include leadership roles.”Muhammad Rahim: Rahim, an Afghan citizen, is being held as a law-of-war detainee. He was captured in Pakistan in 2007 and was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2008. The review board most recently determined that his detention was a national security imperative in July 2024. His detainee profile said he allegedly “served as a translator, courier, facilitator, and operative for al-Qaeda’s senior leaders, including Osama Bin Laden. He had advanced knowledge of many of al-Qaeda’s attacks.”He is the last remaining Afghan detained at Guantanamo Bay.