Friday, September 25, 2015

Obama Frees 9/11 '20th Attacker' from Gitmo

Abdul Shalabi's official Guantanamo portrait,
showing him wearing the orange uniform
issued to "noncompliant" individuals
(IBD) How much does President Obama still want the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison shuttered? He just released the man trained to be the 20th hijacker for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

In May, 2008, Rear Adm. David M. Thomas, then-commander of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay, sent a memo marked secret to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command recommending continued detention for Abdul Rahman Shalabi, who has just been released to Saudi Arabia by the Obama administration.

Here are just some of the things the declassified memo said:

• "Detainee (Shalabi) is a member of al-Qaida and a long-term bodyguard for Usama Bin Laden (UBL), serving in that position beginning in 1999."

• "Detainee received specialized close combat training for his role as a suicide operative in an aborted component of the 11 September 2001 al-Qaida attacks."

• "Detainee participated in hostilities against U.S. and Coalition forces and was captured with a group referred to as the Dirty 30, which included UBL bodyguards and an assessed 20th 11 September 2001 hijacker."

• "Detainee received advanced training at multiple al-Qaida camps."

• "Detainee also has familial ties to UBL and has demonstrated his hatred for Americans at JTFGTMO (Gitmo) and will likely reestablish ties to al-Qaida and other extremist elements if released."

• "A HIGH risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies."

• "A HIGH threat from a detention perspective."

• "Of HIGH intelligence value."

• "His overall behavior has been mostly noncompliant and hostile to the guard force and staff. He currently has 95 Reports of Disciplinary Infraction listed in DIMS with the most recent occurring on 27 February 2008, when he was reported spitting on the guard force."

• "Detainee has 11 Reports of Disciplinary Infraction for assault with the most recent occurring on 27 February 2008, when he was reported spitting on the guard force."

• "Other incidents for which he has been disciplined include inciting and participating in mass disturbances, failure to follow guard instructions and camp rules, inappropriate use of bodily fluids, unauthorized communications, damage to government property, attempted assaults, assaults, provoking words and gestures, and possession of food and nonweapon type contraband."

• "On 7 August 2005, detainee was reported to be in possession of broken glass (shank)."

This is the terrorist prisoner President Obama is releasing, believing he will be rehabilitated in a program in his native Saudi Arabia where 12% of the subjects ultimately return to terrorist activities.

Shalabi was bodyguard to Osama bin Laden himself, as well as trained to take part in the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide attacks.

He was also on a partial hunger strike for nine years at Gitmo, and will undoubtedly be used in Islamist propaganda against U.S. detention policies once he returns to his home.

No wonder Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., described the release of "this dangerous detainee" as "another example of President Obama playing politics with national security and putting campaign promises ahead of U.S. national security interests."

A high-ranking al-Qaida member who hates America so much that again and again he assaulted our guards at Gitmo, including spitting and using bodily fluids, and who apparently planned to attack them with broken glass.

Does that sound like someone who is going to be rehabilitated in Saudi Arabia? Or someone who will be returning to the terrorist battlefield to wage jihad against America?