A series of unfortunate news:
Ongoing threats, but they’re sending Gitmo alumni to Yemen?
Brennan: Some Guantanamo detainees will go to Yemen
John Brennan, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the failed Christmas Day terror attack on a U.S. airliner doesn’t change the plan to close the Guantanamo facility.
On Saturday, Obama linked the airline bombing suspect to an al Qaeda affiliate based in Yemen.
Brennan called the failed attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan a “unique incident” that won’t affect the process of closing the Guantanamo facility.
“We are making sure that we don’t do anything that’s going to put Americans at risk,” Brennan said.
About half of the roughly 200 detainees still held at Guantanamo Bay would be prosecuted in the United States by federal courts or military tribunals. Some would be sent to third countries, including Yemenis returned to their home nation, Brennan said.
How has that worked out in the past?
Thomas Joscelyn:
the Obama administration is apparently determined to make more suspect transfer decisions. Just this morning, John Brennan, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, told CNNIn December, for example, the Obama administration transferred Ayman Batarfi from Gitmo to Yemen. Batarfi is a known al Qaeda doctor who attended to wounded jihadists during the battle of Tora Bora, met with bin Laden at Tora Bora, and has admitted ties to al Qaeda’s anthrax program. Despite all of this and more, Batarfi, who has been a committed jihadist for decades, was deemed one of the most transfer-worthy detainees by the Obama administration.
“Weapons of mass destruction” have now returned full-circle to the Middle East.
And now the Gitmo detainees may be heading there.
I don’t understand why we don’t get all the intel we can from these psycho terrorists and then shoot them. Why are any of these guys getting released or being transferred anywhere? They are not soldiers or civilians as defined by the Geneva Convention. They are spies. All bets are off for spies. Why are we paying for their food and medical care? Why are we comforting our enemy in allowing them their Korans and prayer time? Why are we sending them to Yemen where they regroup to attack us again? How we have handled the Gitmo detainees is so lacking in realism that we deserve what we are getting. We deserve it because we should know better. We act like trusting children instead of understanding the nature of our enemy and dealing with them appropriately. They hate us. We have two choices in getting them not to hate us – become Muslims or kill ourselves. Any other choice will not discourage or disarm their hate of us. We cannot influence them in any way accept to be a very formidable enemy that is not afraid to destroy those who threaten us. Yet, we are afraid, and we indulge ourselves by being inexcusably nice. Hence, we pay the price for our self-indulgence with our blood, fear, and resources.