Tariq Ali Abdullah Ba Odah is a detainee at Guantánamo who the government has determined to be a member of al Qaeda and/or Taliban forces. Ba Odah filed a petition for habeas corpus to challenge that determination, but he never made efforts to defend the petition (he filed no traverse in response to the government’s factual return and sought no discovery), and he voluntarily dismissed it in March 2014. Even so, the President’s GTMO Task Force concluded that Ba Odah ought to be transferred back to his home nation of Yemen, or elsewhere, if and when “the security situation in Yemen improves[] [or if] an appropriate rehabilitation program or third-country resettlement option becomes available[.]” A State Department spokesperson recently said that the administration was working on finding a nation to which it might transfer Ba Odah; however, according to Charlie Savage, the State Department apparently does not yet “have any deal in place to relocate Mr. Ba Odah.” ...

Read the full piece here.