The United States Department of Defense acknowledges holding four Kazakh detainees in Guantanamo.
In November 2003, the Central Asia Caucasus Institute Analyst reported that Kazakh Foreign Minister Qasymzhomart Toqaev Kazakhstan had been negotiated with the USA for the release of its citizens.
[3] The Minister stated: ... the situation is complicated by the admissions of some of the prisoners that they took part in military operations with the Taliban in Afghanistan.American ambassador John M. Ordway addressed the Kazakhstani detainees in Guantanamo during a May 22, 2007, press briefing at the Kazakhstani Press Club.
[12] Ordway confirmed that one detainee the USA considered a citizen of Kazakhstan remained in Guantanamo.
We also had a very extensive process to determine when there was no longer any reason to hold those people because they represented no further threat.