2 Gitmo inmates sent to Algeria

MIAMI - The Pentagon has sent two more Guantanamo detainees home, to Algeria, reducing the detention center's population to about 250.

The latest transfer, announced Monday, was part of a steady series of departures from the controversial detention center in southeast Cuba as the Bush administration winds down.

Federal court filings list the two men repatriated to their homeland as Soufian Huwari, 38, and Labed Ahmed, 50.

Ahmed arrived at Guantanamo in August 2002, according to Pentagon documents.

He was allegedly captured in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in March 2002 during a security services raid on a guest house that netted the CIA alleged arch-terrorist Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, known as Abu Zubaydah.

Defense Department documents indicate that Huwari had traveled through Europe and joined Chechen fighters in the Republic of Georgia before his capture. He was sent to Guantanamo in May 2003.

The transfer comes at a time of much debate over the future of the Pentagon's showcase detention center.

The American Civil Liberties Union is urging President-elect Barack Obama to issue an executive order halting the military commissions there and ordering the site's closure on Inauguration Day.

The Obama transition team's spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, replied that no decision would be made without first "conferring with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle, as well as interested groups."

Cutter's statement did not appear to rule out pre-inauguration deliberations, however, noting that "any decisions would need to be discussed with his Cabinet nominees."

The Obama team's comments also followed denial of an Associated Press report saying the president-elect already had crafted secret plans to put Guantanamo detainees on trial in the United States through a series of courts, one yet to be created.

"There is absolutely no truth to reports that a decision has been made about how and where to try the detainees," senior foreign-policy adviser Denis McDonough said in a statement.

"President-elect Obama said throughout his campaign that the legal framework at Guantanamo has failed to successfully and swiftly prosecute terrorists, and he shares the broad bipartisan belief that Guantanamo should be closed," McDonough said.

But, he said, "there is no process in place to make that decision until his national-security and legal teams are assembled."

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has been steadily downsizing the detainee population, periodically issuing transfer announcements.

The latest statement listed Guantanamo's census at "approximately 250 detainees."