Obama May Free Top Aide To 9/11 Mastermind From Gitmo
Investor's Business Daily
04/24/2015 06:47 PM ET
Excerpt:
Another Obama amnesty program is well underway — at Guantanamo, where three dangerous al-Qaida operatives have quietly been OK'd for release in three months. And now a close aide to the 9/11 mastermind is also on tap for release.
After already freeing an al-Qaida bomb maker last month — over the objections of U.S. intelligence, which warned, "He would be capable of re-engaging as an explosives expert or trainer" — the parole board that Obama set up to clear out Gitmo is now poised to rubber-stamp for release a close associate of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Gitmo's so-called Periodic Review Board, made up of State Department and Justice Department officials, is hearing from defense lawyers for Abdul Shalabi, a former bodyguard to Osama bin Laden also connected to Mohammed while he was in Karachi, Pakistan, plotting the 9/11 attacks.
They argue that their client is now harmless and wants only to "take care of his ailing mother" in Saudi Arabia while joining the family "real estate and construction business."
Get a grip.
Military intelligence notes that Shalabi was trained "for participation in a suicide attack or deployment to the West" and warns that his family in Saudi Arabia didn't stop him from becoming radicalized before 9/11.
So what makes anybody think he'll swear off jihad now?
Shalabi's defense team argues that a Saudi rehabilitation program that uses "art therapy" to de-radicalize terrorists will make sure he's reformed.
Yes, painting pictures will wash away his hatred for the U.S. (Shalabi has committed "numerous serious offenses" against Gitmo guards and has "provided no information of value" during interviews, according to intelligence reports.)
Many graduates from that same Saudi program have rejoined the jihad, including one spectacular failure who went on to become al-Qaida's top leader in Yemen.
By Riyadh's own numbers, more than 20% of the participants at the former holiday resort, which includes golf carts, palm trees and an Olympic-sized pool, go back to the fight.
Still, don't be surprised if he's repatriated there.
Over the past few months, Obama's parole board has cleared detainees who are just as dangerous, including:
• Mashur Al-Sabri, an al-Qaida operative tied to one of the USS Cole bombers;
• Saeed Sarem Jarabh, an al-Qaida operative whose Yemeni brother is a leader in al-Qaida's Arabian Peninsula branch;
• Tariq al-Sawah, an Egyptian "who probably designed the devices al-Qaida used to attack U.S. targets."
All were cleared based on the same sob stories — they want to return to their families and deserve a second chance, blah, blah.
These ill-advised releases come as U.S. intelligence warns of increasing recidivism among former Gitmo detainees.
*snip*
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