Closing Guantanamo Bay | featured news

Three detainees from Guantanamo Bay were transferred to Saudi Arabia "under appropriate security measures," the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday, in another step toward President Barack Obama's goal of closing the prison for terrorism suspects.

In a news conference in Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, called the detainees “terrorist suspects” and demanded they be sent back to China as soon as possible.

President Obama on Thursday will try to take the reins on the debate over national security and rally support for his plan to shutter the military prison at Guantanamo Bay in what his administration is billing as a major address. In recent weeks, conservative critics have blasted Obama for what they see as missteps on national security.