FOX News just reported that two terrorists who had previously been classified as medium to high level risk have been released from GITMO: The Pentagon had earlier determined that bin Atef (pictured above) was a high risk to the U.S. and to American interests, while Al-Dhuby posed a medium risk. two attended the same terrorist training camp as four of the 9/11 hijackers.
It’s clear that the Obama administration is willing to take the risk in order to fulfill Obama’s wish to close Guantanamo before the end of his term. The Albanians too prisoners from GITMO and then got favors from the US. Don’t you wonder what we gave Ghana in return for taking these Taliban terrorists.
ACCRA, Ghana — Two men who were captured by the U.S. in Afghanistan and held at the base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly 14 years without charge have been released and sent to this West African nation for resettlement, officials said Wednesday.
Both of the men released Wednesday, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, were held as enemy combatants, accused of training with al-Qaida and fighting with the Taliban. They had been cleared for release in 2009, but the U.S. won’t send Guantanamo prisoners to Yemen because of instability there and officials had to find another country to accept them.
Ghana, which has not taken in any Guantanamo prisoners previously, suggested their stay might be temporary. “We have indicated our readiness to accept them for a period of two years, after which they may leave the country,” Ghana’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The men, who are in their 30s, followed similar paths, according to U.S. military records. They grew up in Saudi Arabia, were recruited into militant Islam and went off to train and fight in Afghanistan.
Military records say Bin Atef was wounded in a bloody uprising while he was held as a Northern Alliance prisoner near Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, a battle in which a CIA officer was killed. He was also a key leader of a violent clash between guards and detainees at Guantanamo in 2007.
His lawyer, George Clarke, noted that Bin Atef was later a block leader at Guantanamo, serving as a liaison between guards and detainees. “Do they think he is a threat? No,” Clarke said. “He’s a positive character. He’s a very smart guy and I really wish him the best.”
The men, like many other prisoners freed from Guantanamo and forced to start new lives in unfamiliar places, will face a challenge in Ghana, Clarke said. Nevertheless, Bin Atef at least was eager for the opportunity to find a job and start a family, he said.
“He wants to get the hell out of Guantanamo,” said Clarke, a lawyer from Washington who has been representing prisoners at Guantanamo since 2005. “I don’t think there’s a detainee there now who wouldn’t take any place.”
Obama came into office pledging to close the detention center but has been thwarted by Congress, which has barred sending any prisoner to the U.S. for any reason and placed restrictions on sending them elsewhere.
Read more: AP
