President Obama, acting on a long-running promise he made to voters during both his campaigns, is set to release another 17 detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
The New York Times reported Defense Secretary Ash Carter signed off on the deal with a notification to Congress about the "proposed transfers of lower-level detainees," according to one official cited anonymously by the newspaper.
Congress, meanwhile, told Carter to make sure the detainees due for release aren't violating any security standards.
As the New York Times reported: "Obama wants to close the Guantanamo prison in Cuba before he leaves office in a little over a year. His administration has stepped up efforts to find countries to take 48 detainees on a transfer list and moved to speed up the work of a parole-like board that might approve the release of others who are currently recommended for indefinite detention."
As the Weekly Standard reported, these 17 releases would be the largest number set free from Gitmo in a single group since 2007.
Critics have blasted Obama's release of detainees, saying it's a massive security risk to America given reports of some returning to the battlefield in their own countries, and taking up terrorism calls against the United States. As WND previously reported, one of the Gitmo detainees who was released on 2010 by Obama has emerged in the war on terror as a leader of an al-Qaida branch in Yemen.