Chapter 5 Towards the Closure of Guantanamo: International Legal Obligations | 115 with regard to the Transfer or Release of Detainees that the Uighurs had subsequently been resettled. 338 Kiyemba, therefore, denied federal courts the authority to provide a remedy to the detainees it ruled were being unlawfully detained at Guantanamo, undermining the decision of the Supreme Court in Boumediene. It should be noted in this regard that, since Boumediene, the Supreme Court has not issued a decision on habeas regarding Guantanamo detainees. 276. Third, the Department of Defense has the authority to release Guantanamo detainees, as the Department responsible for their detention. Following Executive Order 13492, the Department of Defense conducted an interagency review of the status of each detainee and concluded that 126 of the 240 individuals detained at that time were approved for transfer. 339 However, about half of those cleared were not transferred by December 2010, and now need to meet the requirements imposed by the NDAA. 277. Notwithstanding these obstacles, the Executive branch has taken some steps in recent years to accomplish its goal of closing Guantanamo. Following his May 23, 2013, speech at the National Defense University, President Obama appointed two Special Envoys at the Departments of State and Defense, respectively, to pursue the transfer of detainees designated for transfer. He also lifted the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen, and commenced the Periodic Review Board (PRB) process mandated in Executive Order 13567. In addition, since that date and as of January 23, 2015, 44 detainees have been repatriated or transferred to third countries. 278. In this chapter, the IACHR will make an assessment of the current situation of the three categories of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay: detainees cleared for transfer; detainees facing criminal charges before military commissions; and detainees designated for continued detention (or who had been charged but are currently not considered for prosecution). A. Detainees cleared for transfer 279. The U.S. Government uses the term “release” to mean release from confinement without the need for continuing security measures in the receiving country, while the term “transfer” is used to mean release from confinement subject to appropriate security measures. 340 A detainee is deemed eligible for transfer “if any threat he poses could be sufficiently mitigated through feasible and appropriate security measures.”341 Therefore, an approval for transfer is not a determination that the 338 339 340 341 Kiyemba v. Obama, 563 U.S. (2011). Final Report, Guantanamo Review Task Force, January 22, 2010. Available http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/ag/legacy/2010/06/02/guantanamo-review-final-report.pdf Final Report, Guantanamo Review Task Force, January 22, 2010, p. 3. Final Report, Guantanamo Review Task Force, January 22, 2010, p. 7. at: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR