Washington, November 8 (RHC)-- The Los Angeles Times reports the Barack Obama administration is holding talks with Yemeni officials on establishing a facility outside Sanaa to hold prisoners from Guantánamo Bay and Afghanistan. The talks could be one step toward closing Guantánamo -- located on illegally occupied Cuban territory -- which President Obama has repeatedly vowed to do.
More than half of prisoners currently at Guantánamo are from Yemen; many have been held for over a decade without charge or trial. Yemeni officials have reportedly drafted tentative plans for the facility, but a final deal could take months.
In other news, former Guantánamo Bay prisoner David Hicks has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn his 2007 conviction. Captured in Afghanistan, Hicks was held at Guantánamo for five years before reaching a plea deal to return to his native Australia. Hicks admitted to material support for terrorism and agreed to renounce his claim of suffering abuse in U.S. custody.
He was the first Guantánamo prisoner convicted under the Military Commissions Act. This week, Hicks filed an appeal saying he had pleaded guilty under duress. In a statement, Hicks said: "I had no choice but to sign the plea deal or I would have died in Guantánamo."