PrairiePundit

  Legal Insurrection: Biden Administration Considering Opening Migrant Detention Facility at Gitmo   “with a requirement that some of the guards speak Spanish and Haitian Creole, according to government records” The same media that went crazy over the Border Patrol riding horses controlled by reins seems OK with this idea? It is hard to even make up the craziness of liberals and a border policy. 

  Daily Mail: Victorious Taliban commander claims he 'spent eight years in Guantanamo Bay' in triumphant speech from Kabul palace as Islamists seize Afghanistan - while thousands fight to flee country in chaotic scenes at airport It is not clear who released this guy.  Trump signed an executive order to keep Gitmo in operation and Biden has moved to close it. 

Telegraph: US plans to jail British jihadis in Guantanamo after getting fed-up with UK's soft approach to terrorists The United States is planning to send British Isil fighters to Guantánamo Bay amid frustration at the UK’s failure to take responsibility for its homegrown terrorists, The Telegraph can reveal. Senior US officials believe Guantánamo can house more than 50 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters, including the two surviving British members of the so-called “Beatles” terrorist cell that executed Western hostages. It has emerged that the vast majority of Islamist fighters returning to the UK from Syria have been placed on “secretive” government rehabilitation schemes rather than be prosecuted. Officials figures show only one in 10 jihadists have been prosecuted. ... The Brits have been wringing their hands about what to do with the terrorists who went to fight for the enemy.  Historically the English knew what to do with traitors, but they seem to be p...

Washington Free Beacon: A leading group of Republican senators is petitioning the Trump administration to reopen the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to hundreds of foreign ISIS fighters captured on the battlefield, according to a copy of a letter sent Tuesday to the White House and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. As the Trump administration continues to take the fight to ISIS forces in Syria and elsewhere, Sens. Tom Cotton (R., Ark,), Ted Cruz (R., Texas), Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), and John Cornyn (R., Texas.) are petitioning the administration to use the prison camp established on the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a holding facility. The timing of the letter coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the Obama administration's executive order to close Guantanamo Bay. President Donald Trump reversed this order and the prison remained open, but no new prisoners have been transferred to the facilities during his time in office. With nearly 700 "battle-harde...

Daily Mail: Osama Bin Laden’s driver who was linked to 2012 Benghazi attack that killed a US diplomat ‘is captured in Libya’, 11 years after he was released from Guantanamo Abu Sufian bin Qumu has reportedly been captured in Libya. The 'high-ranking' al-Qaeda operative had ties to Osama Bin Laden and was linked to the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed US mabassador and others. Releasing people from Gitmo has been a mistake for the most part.  Too many of them are recidivist terrorists.

NY Times: Deported to Libya, Ex-Gitmo Detainees Vanish. Will Others Meet a Similar Fate? Senegal deported two former Guantánamo detainees to Libya, raising fears of a broader collapse of Obama-era resettlement deals under President Trump. Obama bought into the storyline that Gitmo created more terrorist than it held.  I never bought and still do not.  It sounded like enemy propaganda to get more of their seasoned fighters back into the battle and this happened often enough to make the releases look like a mistake to most people.  It appears what Senegal did was put them back into the fight in a lawless Libya created by one of Obama and Clinton's bigger strategic blunders.

Daily Mail: Ex-Guantanamo Bay inmate is arrested after being linked to an ISIS recruiting network eight years after he was released from the controversial prison  Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar, a former Guantananmo Bay inmate, is one of the six people arrested in Bordeaux, France, for allegedly being involved in an ISIS recruiting network. Obama released him after the French agreed to take him in.  Apparently, both Obama and Sarkozy were wrong about him.  Obama's position on Gitmo never made much sense.  He bought into the false premise that Gitmo was a recruiting tool for al Qaeda.  This ignored the fact that the biggest recruiting tool was the interpretation of the Koran by the radical Islamists.

NY Times: C.I.A. Torture Left Scars on Guantánamo Prisoner’s Psyche for Years Newly declassified documents show that the waterboarding and other torture techniques used against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri had long-term consequences. This is like a story that says prison has been hard of Charles Manson or el Chapo.  When it comes to mass murders I have a low empathy quotient.   It is just too bad it did not happen to more members of the al Qaeda death cult.

NY Times: Sessions Says Guantánamo Is a ‘Very Fine Place’ for New Suspects Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would advise President Trump to send new detainees to the wartime prison rather than bring them to civilian courts for prosecution. I think the lawfare approach to dealing with terrorist has many flaws.  When Clinton put the African Embassy bombers on trial, it exposed some key intelligence sources and methods that ultimately made it much more difficult to prevent the 9-11 attacks.  To tie bin Laden to the attacks the government produced transcripts of bin Laden's satellite phone communications with the bombers.  He immediately quit using the satellite phone and a valuable intelligence opportunity was lost forever. Treating the detainees as illegal combatants and keeping them at Gitmo until the war is over is a more logical way to deal with them.  Obama's belief that Gitmo created more terrorist has also been shown to be invalid. ...

AFP: A former Guantanamo Bay inmate was killed in a US air strike in Yemen last week, the Defense Department said Monday, as part of a stepped-up campaign against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. "We can confirm the death of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Yasir al-Silmi," Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said. Silmi had been incarcerated at the notorious US military prison in Cuba in 2002-2009. The Pentagon did not immediately have additional details on Silmi's case, but Davis said he was not considered a "high-value" target. Republican lawmakers repeatedly blocked then-president Barack Obama's efforts to shut Guantanamo and pointed to former detainees returning to the fight as proof inmates should remain locked up there. Silmi died March 2 in the same strike that killed Usayd al-Adnani, a "long-time explosives expert who served as the organization's emir within the Abyan governorate," Davis said. The United States ...

BBC: A British IS fighter who died in a suicide bomb attack on Iraqi forces in Mosul is a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, the BBC understands. The self-styled Islamic State group said two days ago that Abu-Zakariya al-Britani detonated a car bomb at an Iraqi army base in Tal Gaysum, south-west of Mosul. He is believed to have been originally known as Ronald Fiddler. Fiddler, 50 and from Manchester, was sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2002. IS has now published a photograph of Fiddler, who was also known as Jamul-Uddin al-Harith before taking the nom-du-guerre Abu-Zakariya al-Britani. He had been seized by US forces in Pakistan in 2001, before being sent to Guantanamo. US interrogators found he provided useful information to them about the Taliban's methods, and he was released after two years. The Daily Mail reported Fiddler received a million pounds in compensation from the government when he came back to the UK. ... I see two mistakes in this situation.  The Bush administration sho...

NY Times: How a Civilian Prosecution Gave the U.S. a Key Informant A Somali who pleaded guilty to supporting terrorists was not tried before a military commission. Still, he became one of the nation’s most important informants. The US got extremely important information from al Qaeda leaders held at Gitmo, but liberals are so prejudiced against the facility and interrogation techniques they do not want to admit it and would rather trot out a rare success from the lawfare model.

Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: $5 MILLION price on the heads of ex-Guantanamo inmates who turned back to terror - as security experts warn MORE will follow if Obama orders mass transfer Two ex-inmates at the detention facility are among the world's most wanted men after being sent to Saudi Arabia where rehab failed and they become senior al Qaeda terrorists again. Who knew?  One of the biggest fantasies of Obama and some in the Pentagon is that releasing terrorist will reduce terrorism.  In fact, terrorism has increased dramatically since Obama began this policy.  We were doing much better at stopping terrorism when we were capturing terrorists and interrogating them.  Obama's policy of hitting them with a drone strike means there will be less intelligence and has in no way reduced their animosity toward the US. These people are Islamic religious bigots who want to kill everyone in the world who does not agree with their weird beliefs.  We need a Pre...

Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: Twenty-two Guantanamo detainees to be freed within days as Obama plans mass transfer of fanatics who have threatened to bomb and behead Americans The president is moving to remove more than a third of the Cuban detention center's 59 detainees before Trump becomes president. Those left there are known as the 'worst of the worst' by authorities - and Trump has demanded no transfers take place before he is sworn in on January 20. A military source told DailyMail.com a total of at least 22 are likely to be transferred despite their previous conduct and the risk they will return to battle.... This is a terrible idea by a President who has been proven wrong with his theory that Gitmo creates terrorists.  Since he has been releasing detainees, terrorism has actually gotten worse.  There is zero hard evidence that releasing these guys will reduce the threat of terrorism.

CNN: President Barack Obama plans to transfer additional detainees from Guantanamo Bay, the White House said Tuesday, hours after President-elect Donald Trump warned against moving any more prisoners from the naval facility. "I would expect, at this point, additional transfers to be announced," said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. He characterized the moves, which come in the final weeks of Obama's administration, as continuing the long-running effort to clear detainees from the prison. Earlier Tuesday, Trump revived the hot-button topic of the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, also known as Gitmo, in a Twitter message warning against further prisoner transfers before he takes office. "There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield," Trump tweeted Tuesday. ... The rationale for the releases is that it would reduce terrorism.  But terrorism has incr...

Guardian: Guantánamo ex-prisoners continue to turn up on battlefield, says US Two confirmed as joining militant groups in first six months of 2016 – but rate was much higher in Bush years, says intelligence assessment I think it was a mistake to release any of these guys before the end of the war.  President Obama is labouring under the false premise that  keeping them is a recruiting tool for the enemy.  The evidence suggest otherwise, since the number of Islamic terrorists has increased dramatically since the releases took place.  There appears to be no correlation between the number of prisoners held at Gitmo and the number of jihadis recruited.

AP: A resettled former Guantanamo prisoner who disappeared last month in Uruguay, setting off alarm bells in neighboring countries and recriminations in Washington, has reappeared in Venezuela, the government said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa told The Associated Press that Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab showed up at Uruguay's consulate in Caracas. Consulate officials refused to provide information or entry to AP journalists gathered outside. Late Thursday, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Dhiab told the consulate he wanted to move to Turkey or another country where he could reunite with his family. "He expressed clearly that in no case was he interested in returning to Uruguay, but required the assistance of our country for his proposal," the statement said. Dhiab, who has repeatedly expressed his unhappiness at his life in Uruguay, previously accused the government of breaking its commitment to bring his family. He is one of ...

Washington Post: Former Guantanamo detainees tied to attacks on Americans after release Approximately six Americans were killed in attacks in Afghanistan by at least 12 former prisoners who returned to the fight, U.S. officials say. This is more evidence of Obama's failed policy of releasing killers in hopes that there will be fewer terrorist.  Terrorism is worse than ever and the only people grateful for the release are the killers.  The blood of the six Americans is on his hands if he let these people go.

Rowan Scarborough: The Pentagon is boasting of the al Qaeda operatives it has killed to make America safer, yet the same type of terrorists have been transferred out of the Guantanamo prison to countries with a poor history of security, and some have ended up back on the battlefield. The practice of killing terrorists with one hand and releasing them with the other points out the Obama administration’s mixed message as federal agencies push to evict nearly all detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba . Republicans fear that, post-election, President Obama will decree the prison closed and move the last cadre of irredeemable terrorists, such as Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to a U.S. prison. And conservatives are criticizing the administration’s replenishment of al Qaeda ranks with transferred detainees. “The hypocrisy of the Obama administration knows no limit,” said retired Army officer Robert Maginnis , author of the counter-jihad book “Never Submit.” “On one hand, they ...

NY Times: Congress Moves to Nullify Judge’s Order on Guantánamo Guards Lawmakers are intervening in a legal dispute over whether female guards at Guantánamo should be permitted to touch religiously conservative detainees. The detainees' position is patently ridiculous and juvenile.  They are acting like grade schoolers who think girls have cooties.  It is more than passing strange that in a military where there is a push to put women in combat roles they would be restricted from handling guard duty of terrorists.   If these guys don't like it, maybe it will make them think twice about returning to the war if Obama lets them go.  If this is all it take to turn them into a terrorist again, they are utterly hopeless.