Flight 253 aftermath: Two of the plotters were former GITMO detainees released by Bush

  In spite of the president’s claim that the terrorist attacker on Flight 253 was an “isolated extremist,” it is becoming more clear that this simply is not true; Al-Qaeda has taken responsibility for planning the failed attack, a man helped  Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab get on the plane without a passport, Yemen claims they have three hundred more militants ready to go, and now we are learning that two former GITMO detainees— released by President Bush– were involved in planning the Christmas day attack.

  The most incredulous part of this story about two of the planners being former GITMO detainees who were released, is the reason why they were released; they were not released because they are innocent– nobody being held at GITMO is innocent, they were picked up on the battlefield fighting against America– they were released so that they could enter a rehabilitation center. You read that right. They were sent to Saudi Arabia to attend  a Jihad rehabilitation center where they were given paint and crayons. Isn’t that nice!

  Apparently drawing pictures of dead Americans just didn’t do it for these two, they need the real thing. The rehabilitation didn’t stick.

  President Bush had a liberal side to him– spending, growing government, amnesty, no child left behind, the Medicare drug expansion– but this takes the cake.

   This is where we have come as a nation? In the interest of sounding like a “compassionate conservative” he allowed two known terrorists to enter a rehabilitation center because after all, everyone deserves a second chance, right? He put the image of being compassionate above the actual protection of America in this case.

  Couple this with the fact that we did not allow our military to enter the Afghanistan and Iraq wars at the full of their might. If the military was allowed to fight to the utmost of their capability these wars would have been over years ago.

   But President Bush tried to fight a limited politically correct war and we see where this has gotten us. In the interest of being compassionate, President Bush has hamstrung the ability of the military– and this will continue, probably worse, with Barack Obama as commander-in-chief– one has to wonder how effective the military will ever be again unless these restrictive policies are reversed.

  We have seen the effects of political correctness in the military ranks recently. Just look at Fort Hood as an example of what happens when political correctness goes awry. Higher ups in the military saw all of the warning signs with Hasan and in the interest of being politically correct– and with the fear of being labeled racists– the not only did not heed the warnings, the promoted Hasan through the ranks.

  This is more of the same when it comes to these GITMO detainees. Instead of being locked away securely in GITMO where they belonged, they were released into rehabilitation where they were able to scam the system and return to their Jihad planning. This is a disgrace and in this regard it falls solely on Bush and his administration.

  But it does not end with President Bush– nor does it vindicate Barack Obama or his administration’s failings or Janet Napolitano for her ineptness that she did not see the need to put Abdul Mutallab on the no-fly list despite the warnings,– as I wrote here, Barack Obama was considering releasing 100 more GITMO detainees into rehab centers. In that post I asked, “What’s the worst that could happen? Do you really want to find out?” Well, it looks like we just found out.

  There is plenty of blame to go around but Barack Obama should use this as a “teachable moment”– a term that his administration loves to use– because as we have just seen, these people cannot be rehabilitated. Barack Obama is in the process of closing down GITMO, bringing these terrorists to the United States, granting them rights, and putting them on trial in civilian courts and not in military tribunals as if they were criminals and not terrorists.

  If this episode teaches us one thing, it is the fact that GITMO should remain open and these people should never again see the light of day. The only way that terrorists can be rehabilitated is to watch them dance at the end of a rope. That is the only way to ensure that they will never return to Jihad again.