US releases 12 Gitmo detainees, 2 to gov’t we don’t recognize

[darrels joy]

US releases 12 Gitmo detainees, 2 to gov’t we don’t recognize

posted at 9:30 am on December 21, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

The Obama administration deported more Gitmo detainees than earlier reported by the Washington Post, and not just to Yemen. Instead of the six Yemenis first reported, the administration released a dozen detainees, including the six Yemenis but adding four Afghans and two Somalians. The latter two get returned to a government with no diplomatic relations with the US, and which immediately released the pair:

Defense and Justice Department officials Saturday refused to comment on the massive transfer, a portion of which was reported by The Washington Post on Friday as a potential “prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen” at a time of gathering Republican resistance to the White House plan to move other detainees to Thomson, Ill.

Reports from Somaliland, a breakaway region in northern Somalia that has its own autonomous government, identified the freed Somalis as Ismael Arale, 45, and Mohamed Suleiman Barre, 44.

Arale and Barre were processed by the Somaliland government and then released to rejoin their families in Hargeisa, the major city in Somaliland and capital of the region, according to a statement on the official Somaliland Web site.

The United States does not recognize the government in Somaliland and there were no official statements on how Arale and Barre arrived there. A local newspaper, the Somaliland Press, said they arrived aboard a jet provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross, suggesting that the United States had released the men to the Red Cross in a third country.

Arale, who’s been described as a document forger and Islamic jurist, was captured in Somalia in 2006 was one of the last detainees ever taken to Guantánamo.

The Pentagon said in a June 6, 2007, announcement that Arale “exemplifies the genuine threat that the United States and other countries face throughout the world from dangerous extremists.”

We captured Arale in Somalia three years ago. Since we don’t have any military presence in that country, or at least none we acknowledge, Arale had to have been captured either by covert intelligence forces or a secret military mission. That must have meant that the Pentagon and/or the CIA thought him to be a significant target. We don’t know, because the paperwork released on Arale has been heavily redacted — which also indicates the presumed value of having him in our custody.

Now he’s gone back to an area known to be a haven for terrorists — and under the control of a government with which the US doesn’t do business. How exactly did that happen? Somaliland is a breakaway piece of Somalia that no one recognizes. Does the US usually extradite prisoners to jurisdictions that we do not recognize and in the absence of an extradition treaty?

The only thing more foolish than releasing terrorists is to release them in the middle of failed states.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/2...ont-recognize/

I guess we now know what will happen with the rest of the "about 200" terrorists still at Gitmo.

Joy

[darrels joy]

US sends home 12 Guantanamo detainees

35-0800>Sun Dec 20, 9:14 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said it has sent 12 more Guantanamo detainees home to Afghanistan, Yemen and a breakaway region of Somalia -- volatile nations where Al-Qaeda havens have fueled concern over such repatriations.

The transfers bring the total number of detainees at the "war on terror" prison to below 200, just days after the US government announced it will move many other inmates to a maximum-security prison in the state of Illinois.

Six Yemenis, four Afghans and two Somalis were transferred to their homelands over the weekend, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.

"These transfers were carried out under individual arrangements between the United States and relevant foreign authorities to ensure the transfers took place under appropriate security measures," it said.

"Consultations with foreign authorities regarding these individuals will continue."

Yemen's embassy in Washington applauded the release of the Yemeni inmates and vowed to continue close consultations with President Barack Obama's administration.

"The Embassy of the Republic of Yemen hails the release and transfer of six of its citizens from Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility," said spokesman Mohammed Albasha in a statement.

"Yemen will continue its diplomatic dialogue with the United States government to repatriate the remaining Yemeni detainees," it added.

"President Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility is an astute reflection of the prudent national security and foreign policy position of the US administration."

US media reported Friday that a group of Yemenis held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was set to be repatriated, perhaps paving the way for the removal of one of the biggest obstacles in shutting down the prison.

Close to half of Guantanamo's 198 remaining detainees are from Yemen, and the latest transfers are seen as a key test of the Sanaa government's commitment to keeping militants in check and fighting Al-Qaeda.

US officials fear the country lacks the security resources to ensure that Guantanamo returnees will not join militant groups active there.

According to Yemen's defense ministry, over the past week Yemeni security forces killed 28 Al-Qaeda militants and captured another 30 in an offensive against the terror network.

There have been months of high-level meetings between senior US and Yemeni government officials, including a visit to Sanaa by deputy CIA director Stephen Kappes, The Washington Post reported.

If the transfer goes well, US officials are prepared to repatriate more Guantanamo Yemenis and 34 of those still at the camp have been cleared for release, according to the Post.

One of those already allowed back to Yemen was Osama bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan, who had been held at Guantanamo for seven years. He was sent to Yemen in December 2008 and released in mid-January.

The DOJ said the two transferred Somalis were repatriated to the autonomous region of Somaliland.


In October the leader of the breakaway self-declared state called for war against Shebab rebels, a hardline Al-Qaeda-inspired militia blamed for deadly suicide attacks in 2008.

The Shebab, who control southern Somalia, have waged relentless battles against Somalia's transitional government in the capital Mogadishu.

Obama acknowledged in November that he would miss the self-imposed January deadline to close down the Guantanamo prison.

US officials said Tuesday that a batch of Guantanamo detainees will be transferred to a maximum-security prison in Illinois.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the administration intends to release or extradite 116 Guantanamo detainees to either countries of origin or to third countries willing to accept them.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091221...20091221021509

Would someone please explain to me, why we are sending terrorists back to countries where we are actively fighting the war?

Joy

[reconeil]

How come none in Press are screaming: "Bloody Murder!" over such Top Level Nationally-Suicidal Behavior??? Are Press just as stupidly mindless as the now TOTALLY America CONTROLLING Corrupt Democrat Chicago Political Machine now gone National & International OBVIOUSLY ARE?

Such Treasonable Wartime Enemy Helpfulness certainly makes me wonder about this latest of many current dispicably unimaginable occurrences being forced upon We Americans.

Do America's NOW TOTAL POLITICAL CONTROLLING Dem Rulers, "Their" Attorney General & all other Justice Department political appointees SIMILARLY Take Oaths & Give Allegiances to The Democrat Party & other Fanatical Marxist Ideologues, both at home & abroad?

It sure-as-hell seems so to me.
In fact & as best as I can figure,...Dem oaths to U.S. Citizenry obviously mean diddly-squat.

Whereas, any oaths no doubt PREVIOUSLY taken to: "Democrat/Socialist/Leftist Political Supremacists posing as Liberals" and/or Marxist/Communist Breed duplicitously calling selves: "Progressives",...are all that truly matter to such; "The ends justify the means" & "Closed Door Secret Committee & Opposition Excluding" specialists type Ruling Elite Ilk.

So: "Pilgrims",...don't be surprised with any; "Change" or changes whatsoever.
Most asked for it. Most voted for Obama to: "Change" the Greatest Nation on Earth...EVER.

So, Live with it or Die with it. American People's choices now are mostly just Hope & Luck.
Well intrenched kings, queens, lords & ladies will not give up their positions, power & control easily. Such never did,...nor ever will: "Citizens". Remember Marie Antoinette & Hubby?

Then too, changing bad laws are just as difficult as changing U.S. back to a Representative Form of Governance. Maybe even harder? We've still got laws on the books, going back to Old Indian Fighting Days. Why is that?

Neil

[darrels joy]

Bomb plot complicates Gitmo plan By: Josh Gerstein December 26, 2009 07:02 PM EST

Growing evidence that the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a commercial airliner as it landed in Detroit Friday spent time in Yemen and may have been fitted with customized, explosive-laden clothing there could complicate the U.S. government’s efforts to send home more than 80 Yemeni prisoners currently at Guantanamo Bay. Since Yemenis represent almost half of the roughly 200 remaining prisoners at Gitmo, new hurdles to their resettlement could spell more trouble for President Barack Obama’s plan to close the island prison while transferring a limited number of detainees to a prison in the U.S. Six Yemeni nationals were returned home earlier this month, and officials hoped more transfers would follow. The relatively weak central government has been working, with U.S. military and diplomatic support, to counter two separate insurgencies, and the nation, Osama Bin Laden’s ancestral home, has become a haven for some members of Al Qaeda. That instability has contributed to concerns within the Obama administration and from its domestic critics about returning prisoners there for repatriation. The Nigerian man charged with the Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard Northwest Flight 253, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, reportedly spent time in Yemen after graduating from a London university in 2008. According to ABC News, Abdulmutallab has told authorities that, while in Yemen, Al Qaeda operatives crafted the explosive device which was sewn into Abdulmutallab’s underwear. “Yesterday just highlights the fact that sending this many people back—or any people back—to Yemen right now is a really bad idea,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. “It’s just dumb….If you made a list of what the three dumbest countries would be to send people back to, Yemen would be on all the lists.” “I think it’s a major mistake,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said about prisoner releases to Yemen. “I don’t think Guantanamo should be closed, but if we’re going to close it I don’t believe we should be sending people to Yemen where prisoners have managed to escape in the past….Obviously, if [Abdulmutallab] did get training and direction from Yemen, it just adds to what is already a dangerous situation.” While Republicans have long been outspoken against plans to send more Guantanamo prisoners to Yemen, the Northwest Airlines incident seems to have persuaded at least one key Democrat that those plans should be reconsidered. “In terms of sending more of them to return to Yemen, it would be a bit of a reach,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told POLITICO on Saturday. “I’d, at a minimum, say that whatever we were about to do we’d at least have to scrub it again from top to bottom.” Thompson, who said he plans to convene hearings in January about the bombing attempt, said the reported Yemen links to the incident could even lead some members to question whether Yemenis at Guantanamo should be transferred to the new terror prison the administration wants to set up in Thomson, Ill. “It’s something that’s going to be of interest to everybody…We ought to look at everything we have underway to make sure that something hasn’t been overlooked,” the congressman said. “I’d expect Yemen’s handling of returned Guantanamo detainees to come under intense U.S. scrutiny,” said Matthew Waxman, a Columbia law professor who was an assistant Defense secretary for detainee affairs under President George W. Bush. “In the past, the Yemeni government has not shown great capacity or reliability, but the U.S. hopes to build a stronger partnership and improve that record, in part because it has few other options in this important region.” The White House had no comment on how Abdulmutallab’s history might impact future prisoner releases or official dealings with Yemen. However, U.S. officials have worked intensely in recent months to support the government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and to obtain assurances that Yemenis returned home would not take part in violence. On the same day Abdulmutallab allegedly boarded a flight in Nigeria bound for Amsterdam and then Detroit, Yemeni fighter planes attacked an alleged Al Qaeda compound in southern Yemen. According to the Yemeni government, one apparent target of the strike was Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American cleric who reportedly had links to the U.S. Army officer who allegedly killed 13 people in a shooting spree at a Texas base last month, Maj. Malik Hasan. It is unclear whether Al-Awlaki was killed in the strike. In September, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, visited Yemen to press for greater action against Al Qaeda and discuss logistical issues surrounding prisoner releases. And earlier this month, Obama telephoned Saleh to praise him for recent raids against Al Qaeda and for the nation’s overall cooperation with the U.S. in counterterrorism efforts, U.S. and Yemeni officials said. While the White House maintains that it is pressing Yemen on both the Al Qaeda and prisoner issues, Hoekstra said the issue of emptying out Guantanamo seems to have priority. “The president appears single-mindely focused on closing Guantanamo. He spends more time and energy on closing Guantanamo than on any of the other issues,” said the Michigan Republican. One expert on Yemen said the danger it poses to the U.S. has the potential to grow, regardless of whether Guantanamo prisoners are sent there. “While people say it’s a haven for Al Qaeda, they do not have the kind of cover they had in Afghanistan. The Yemeni military doesn’t like them,” said Charles Schmitz, a geography professor at Towson University in Maryland. “You have a government that’s kind of teetering – That doesn’t have a whole lot of legitimacy….There’s civil disobedience in the south and the Army is basically losing a war in the north. You do have places where they could set up and basically hatch their little plans.” Hoekstra said the Pentagon has prepared a new report on recidivism among Guantanamo detainees and is keeping the report classified despite repeated Congressional requests to make it public. While Hoekstra and King were briefed by the White House about the Detroit incident, the pair were also chafing yesterday at what they said was the Obama Administration’s tight control on information about the Detroit incident. As with the shooting at Ft. Hood in November, the White House has ordered federal agencies not to provide briefings or answer inquiries from members of Congress, leaving all such contacts to be handled by the White House. “I don’t think I ever saw that throughout President Bush’s time in the White House. I could call directly to the director of the CIA or the [National Counterterrorism Center] and get whatever briefings I wanted,” Hoekstra said. He called the briefing limits “totally inappropriate,” but said the White House maintained the orders were needed because of the ongoing criminal investigation.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.c...665EFC42F4E403

[BLUEHAWK]

Great timing, Mr. President.

[reconeil]

No matter how cool, smooth & slick-tongued: "His Barackness" and/or writer of the book:
"The Audacity of Hope" is,...one doubts very much he can Teleprompter BS his way out of
this latest Despicable Display of Favoring Foreigners (enemy inclusive) over We Americans.

His very own words from his book largely kept or press/media-censored from The People of:
"I will stand with Muslims should the winds shift in an ugly direction",
explains much & SEZ-IT-ALL for me,...since not: "Connected" or Big Brother Beholding at all.

I can just be differently honest.

Neil

[darrels joy]

Wacky jihad therapy failed to 'cure' plane-bomb plotter

By CHUCK BENNETT
Last Updated: 7:16 PM, January 2, 2010
Posted: 2:40 AM, January 2, 2010

A cushy Saudi Arabian "rehab" center where terrorists are encouraged to express themselves through crayon drawings, water sports and video games is under scrutiny after one of its graduates re-emerged as a leader in the al Qaeda branch claiming responsibility for trying to blow up an airliner on Christmas.

Said Ali al Shihri -- a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who now heads the terror group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- obviously didn't get to the bottom of his America-hating issues while undergoing the controversial rehab for jihadists.

Inmates like Shihri are supposed to while away the days playing ping-pong, PlayStation and soccer in hopes that the peaceful environment will help them cope with their jihadist rages.

Bomb-makers and gunmen participate in art therapy to help them explore their feelings non-violently.

In between tasty picnic-style meals of rice and lamb and snacks of Snickers along with dips in the pool, participants practice Arabic calligraphy, produce dizzying Jackson Pollack rip-offs and imagine the aftermath of car bombings in crayon.

Some 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists have "graduated" from the program, including 108 former Guantanamo Bay detainees, the Washington Post reported.

"The Saudis talk about a success rate of 80 to 90 percent, but when you look at what those numbers mean in reality, it all falls down. There is no criteria for evaluation," John Horgan, a Department of Homeland Security consultant, told the New York Post.

In 2009, Horgan visited several of the Saudi terrorism rehab centers to report on the programs for Homeland Security.

"These guys are not being de-radicalized. They are being encouraged to disassociate from terrorism, but that doesn't mean their fundamental views changed," said Horgan, director of the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State.

The Saudis launched the programs after the kingdom was rocked by a series of al Qaeda-inspired attacks in 2003 and 2004.

But despite the Saudi government's best efforts, which also include setting up graduates with jobs, introductions to potential wives and new cars, many of the terrorists don't seem to be getting the peace message.

"Several 'returnees' from Guantanamo Bay continue to espouse a virulent hatred of the United States and Western society in general," Horgan wrote in a September report.

That includes Shihri, who has been busy ignoring the peaceful precepts he was taught in terror rehab and has resumed his hardcore jihadist ways.

Shihri is a top member of the al Qaeda branch in Yemen which claims to have masterminded the failed plot to blow up Flight 253 to Detroit on Christmas Day. He also is suspected of coordinating the 2008 bombing of the US embassy in Yemen, ABC reported.

Another former Gitmo detainee, Muhammad al Awfi, who went back to al Qaeda after his release, has ridiculed the Saudi efforts to rehabilitate jihadists as a plan to "drive us away from Islam."

Shihri -- who was released from Guantanamo Bay by President George W. Bush in 2007 -- spent six to ten weeks at the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Care and Counseling, ABC News reported.

"There are guards and gates and barbed wire but it's not quite prison," Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has visited the center, told ABC.

"It's a communal living environment that's more like 'Hogan's Heroes' than 'Escape From Alcatraz.' "

A team of shrinks works with the inmates in managing their emotions, and they are given lessons in Islam from imams, who warn them that jihad is only acceptable when sanctioned by the state.

Toward the end of their stint, some inmates are allowed to make unescorted visits to family members.

"Some American officials say it's all about crayons and art therapy, but the things that don't translate are the intense emotional and intellectual strides that are made," Boucek told ABC.

"They make intense bonds with the sheiks and doctors they work with. The majority is a religious discussion giving them religious evidence to the contrary of why they think their beliefs are based on Islam."

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the failed bombing of Flight 253, some US legislators have called for the White House to stop plans to release Guantanamo detainees.

There is particular concern over Gitmo inmates with ties to Yemen, where would-be underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab says he connected with al Qaeda.

However, an Obama administration aide told the Washington Post that the administration wants to close the prison because it has become a "rallying cry" for terrorist recruiters.

Another official told the newspaper that the government has no choice to release some Gitmo detainees because of challenges in federal court.

chuck.bennett@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/interna...UxSz5tTyhngztI

[darrels joy]

Former Gitmo detainee targeting Afghan charities

By Thomas Joscelyn & Bill RoggioMarch 24, 2010 8:26 AM

A former Guantanamo detainee transferred from the detention facility to Afghanistan on Dec. 19, 2009, has already returned to the Taliban’s ranks, according to multiple intelligence officials contacted by the Long War Journal. The former detainee was identified in documents produced at Guantanamo as Abdul Hafiz (as well as an alternative name, Abdul Qawi) and given an internment serial number of 1030.

During the more than six years he was held at Guantanamo, Hafiz was repeatedly identified as “a suspect in the murder of an International Red Cross worker in Afghanistan.” Memos produced at Guantanamo also alleged that Hafiz participated in the jihad against the Soviets, ran madrassas and recruited young men to fight for the Taliban, was “responsible for maintaining contacts with Mullah Mohammed Omar,” and fought in a 40-man militia comprised of fighters from the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s insurgency group. [For a profile of Hafiz, see LWJ report: “Gitmo detainee implicated in Red Cross murder transferred to Afghanistan.”]

Despite the fact that Hafiz was implicated in the murder of an ICRC worker, and alleged to have substantial ties to senior Taliban officials, he was transferred to Afghanistan. Shortly thereafter, Hafiz rejoined the Taliban.

Targeting charities in Afghanistan

Earlier this week, Newsweek’s Declassified blog reported that Mullah Omar had replaced Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Omar’s top military deputy, with two Taliban militia leaders after Baradar was captured in Pakistan last month. The two Taliban militia leaders are Mullah Abdul Qayum Zakir, himself a former Gitmo detainee, and Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor.

“As one of their first orders of business only three days ago,” Newsweek reported, “Zakir and Mansoor reshuffled several [Taliban] shadow provincial governors in an effort to improve the insurgency's effectiveness.”

Newsweek added: “They also appointed another former Gitmo detainee to head a committee in charge of handling the insurgents' hefty ransom demands for their kidnap victims and for dealing with nongovernment-aid organizations who are considering—or may already be running—projects in areas under Taliban influence.”

Although Newsweek did not name this other “former Gitmo detainee” appointed by Zakir and Mansoor, senior intelligence officials tell the Long War Journal that the description matches what is known about Abdul Hafiz.

This is not the first time that Abdul Hafiz has been tasked with targeting charity workers operating in Afghanistan.

On March 27, 2003, Taliban forces kidnapped and murdered Ricardo Munguía, an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). A few weeks later, in April 2003, US Special Forces raided a Taliban stronghold where perpetrators of the attack were hiding.

“We believe we have killed the assassin that attacked the ICRC worker,” Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Doug Lefforge said at the time. Seven others were captured, including a few who were suspected of involvement in Munguía’s killing. “Now that we have these people, we can verify which group they're from,” Lefforge added. “They are still being interrogated.”

Abdul Hafiz was shipped off to Guantanamo. While he was detained at Gitmo, Hafiz was repeatedly accused of being a suspect in Munguía’s murder. For example, a Feb. 22, 2005, memo prepared for Hafiz’s first administrative review board (ARB) hearing identified him as “a suspect in the murder of an International Red Cross worker in Afghanistan.” Other documents identify the Red Cross worker in question as Munguía.

A key piece of evidence pointing to Hafiz’s role in Munguía’s killing was his satellite phone. The phone “has been linked to the ICRC murder,” according to memos prepared at Gitmo by US officials. During his combatant status review tribunal (CSRT) and ARB hearings, Hafiz did not deny that he was in possession of the satellite phone, which had his fingerprints all over it. But Hafiz claimed that the phone was not his, and that he did not know how to use it.

Hafiz’s claim is dubious, to say the least. When Hafiz was captured in April 2003, according to a memo produced at Gitmo, US forces found him “attempting to call an al Qaeda member who is linked to the murder of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) worker.” In other words, Hafiz apparently knew how to use the satellite phone at the time of his capture.

The “al Qaeda member” Hafiz was attempting to contact was not identified in the government’s documents, but a handful of high-level Taliban and al Qaeda leaders have been tied to Munguía’s murder. One of them is Mullah Dadullah Akhund, who was the Taliban’s senior military commander until he was killed in 2007. The terrorist team responsible for the kidnapping and shooting contacted Dadullah by satellite phone shortly before Munguía was murdered.

While at Gitmo, Hafiz was also accused of being “affiliated with the death of two individuals in Kabul, Afghanistan.” It is not clear who those two individuals are, however, as they are not identified in the US government’s documents.

First reported recidivist released by the Obama administration

John Brennan, who is President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, confirmed in a Feb. 1 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the recidivism rate for former Gitmo detainees had risen to 20 percent. This figure included both “confirmed” and “suspected” cases documented by the Pentagon in a regularly updated analysis of recidivism.

Brennan argued that all of the recidivists had been transferred or released during the previous administration. “I want to underscore the fact that all of these cases relate to detainees released during the previous Administration and under the prior detainee review process,” Brennan wrote. Brennan cited “significant improvements to the detainee review process” that had been made by the Obama administration.

Brennan added that the Pentagon’s updated recidivism “report indicates no confirmed or suspected recidivists among detainees transferred during this Administration, although we recognize the ongoing risk that detainees could engage in such activity.”

Abdul Hafiz’s recidivism highlights that risk. He was transferred to Afghanistan just a few months ago and has already assumed a leadership position within the Taliban’s ranks once again. By some estimates, it takes an average of one and a half years for Gitmo recidivists to rejoin the fight.

Hafiz returned to the fight in far less time.




Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/03/former_gitmo_detaine_3.php#ixzz0j8jWK000