A Few Bad Men: The Obama administration’s astonishing decision to send six Gitmo terrorists to Yemen
Ayman Batarfi has been a committed jihadist for decades. After fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, he became an orthopedic surgeon and lent his skills to al Qaeda and the Taliban. He tended to wounded -jihadists -during the Battle of Tora Bora in late 2001. During his administrative review board hearing at Guantánamo, Batarfi made a number of admissions, including that he met with Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora (when the terror master was the most wanted man on the planet) and had authorized the purchase of medical equipment for a “Malaysian microbiologist.” This was Yazid Sufaat, who was the head of al Qaeda’s anthrax program. [Editor -- Batarfi is only one of the six President Obama released to Yemen on December 17, 2010. The current administration smugly asserts that the reason none of the 50 it released this past year have returned to the battefield will likely be replaced by some other spin when the first one blows himself and others up.]
CBS Poll: Most Americans Say Keep Gitmo Open
In the wake of the Christmas Day terror attempt, President Obama recommitted to his promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Yet more than half of Americans think the U.S. should continue to keep the facility open, a new CBS News poll shows. Fifty-five percent of Americans think the prison should be kept open, according to the poll, which was conducted from Jan. 6 – 10.
Escape from Guantanamo Bay; Is President Obama imprisoned by his promise to close Gitmo?
An NRO Symposium: Peter Brookes, Lee A. Casey and Davdi B. Rivkin Jr., Andrew C. McCarthy, and Clifford D. May
There is renewed interest in Guantanamo Bay. Released Gitmo detainees hold prominent positions in the terror network responsible for the foiled Christmas Day airline attack, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Can President Obama reverse his rash promise to close what everyone agrees is a top-of-the-line, Geneva Conventions–compliant detention center? Or must the president and his advisers press ahead?
Most Wanted: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has risen to prominence over the past month after two US-backed airstrikes targeted training camps and a leadership meeting in Yemen. Just one day after the Christmas Eve strike that targeted Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s top leaders, a Nigerian attempted to blow up an airliner over Detroit. In Yemen, the bomber had received training, the explosive device, and the ideological justification to carry out the attack. The presentation … lists 10 of the most wanted leaders and operatives in the terror group.
Judge tosses out most evidence on Gitmo detainee
Al Madhwani said that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay on multiple occasions threatened him when he tried to retract what he now claims was a false confession. The judge said he was particularly concerned that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay relied on or had access to the coerced confessions from Afghanistan made by Al Madhwani. The logical inference from the record, said the judge, is that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay reviewed Al Madhwani’s coerced confessions with him and asked him to make identical confessions. “Far from being insulated from his coerced confessions, his Guantanamo confessions were thus derived from them,” Hogan wrote. The judge said the government presented medical records about the detainee’s debilitating physical and mental condition that confirm his claims of harsh treatment during the 40 days he spent in Pakistann and Afghanistan.
Terror Suspect’s Lawyer Asks for Dismissal of Case
A federal judge in Manhattan was asked on Monday to dismiss an indictment against a terror suspect whose lawyer argued that his nearly five-year detention in secret C.I.A. prisons and later at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was “perhaps the most egregious violation in the history of speedy-trial jurisprudence.” The judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of United States District Court, listened as a lawyer for the suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, indicated that he was not challenging the government’s authority to decide to detain his client or the wisdom of that decision. The government held Mr. Ghailani to try to obtain intelligence about Al Qaeda. But the government “cannot have it both ways,” said the lawyer, Peter E. Quijano. Once these decisions are made, he added, “they can’t just simply change their mind, their political mind, 57 months later, and say, ‘You know, that indictment before Judge Kaplan? Let’s try it now.’ ”
No Saudi transfers planned in ‘near term’
Sessions spokesman Stephen Miller, noting several media reports last year that indicated the Defense Department and Saudi government were in negotiations to transfer Yemeni detainees to the program, took issue with the administration official’s comments to The Hill. “The administration has not announced a review of the program or any plans to suspend future transfers to the facility — even of detainees from Yemen,” Miller said. He added that what is important is what the administration isn’t saying. “They remark only that ‘near-term’ — not medium- or long-term — transfers don’t happen to be pending,” he said. “Are they not willing to take this option off the table? Why won’t the administration acknowledge that the jihadist rehab program has been anything but ‘successful’?”
A Terrorist Goes Free; Apparently we do negotiate with hostage-takers
With the police in hot pursuit, the kidnappers decided to execute the hostages and abandon their vehicles. Three of the U.S. soldiers were found dead in neighboring Babil; the fourth was wounded and died before he could receive proper treatment.
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Despite the severity of the attacks and Qais Khazali’s known links to Iran’s intelligence services, he was nonetheless released from U.S. custody in late December, at the same time that the League of the Righteous released Peter Moore, a British contractor. Moore, along with four of his bodyguards had been kidnapped on May 29, 2007, in another well-planned raid, this time at the finance ministry in Baghdad. Immediately after the kidnapping, the League of the Righteous demanded the release of Qais, Laith, and other members of the group in exchange for their hostages.
The United States eventually buckled under pressure from Britain. The process to free Qais began last summer, when Laith and more than 100 members of the League of the Righteous were released. In exchange, the Shia terror group turned over the remains of three of the bodyguards in their custody. All three had been shot. The fourth bodyguard, who has yet to be released, is also thought to be dead.
Colonel Mustard Is Not A Jihadist; Dahlia Lithwick (writing in Slate) gets Abdulmutallab’s story wrong
The title of the Times piece that includes the excerpt above is “Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had links with London campaign group.” The London campaign group in question is Begg’s Cage Prisoners. We aren’t playing a game of Clue here.
Third, Lithwick gets some basic facts wrong. She says that “Begg didn’t participate” in Abdulmutallab’s “War On Terror Week” conference. It is not clear how she arrived at this conclusion. In my piece I noted that I could not find a transcript or video of his appearance. But this doesn’t mean that he didn’t participate. The aforementioned Times piece and other accounts in the British press say that he did. The Times piece also says that Begg denies remembering meeting Abdulmutallab (there is no reason for anyone besides Lithwick to take his word for it), but concedes that he did speak at the UCL five or six times.
