Freed GITMO detainees are flocking to Yemen to rejoin the fight

  It certainly seems as though the war on terror overseas contingency operation is spiralling out of control. In light of recent events; the would be Christmas day bomber, who was only stopped by his own ineptitude and the quick thinking of passengers, and the recent abandonment of the United States embassy in Yemen are the most glaring examples of this and coupled with this report that freed GITMO detainees are heading to Yemen to retake arms against the United States should have Barack Obama rethinking his GITMO policy.

   At least twelve former GITMO detainees are currently in Yemen either training to fight against us or are already fighting against us.

A Yemeni, Hani Abdo Shaalan, who was released from Guantánamo in 2007, was killed in an airstrike on December 17, the Yemeni Government reported last week. The deputy head of al-Qaeda in the country is Said Ali al-Shihri, 36, who was released in 2007. Ibrahim Suleiman al-Rubaish, who was released in 2006, is a prominent ideologue featured on Yemeni al-Qaeda websites.

  These men were all released under the Bush administration– some into Jihad rehabilitation centers– and Barack Obama would do well to learn from the previous administration’s failures on the GITMO inmate release program that so far has seen quite a disturbing trend of former inmates who return to the battle.

  To be exact, 74 former GITMO detainees are known to have returned to the battle.

The US Government issued figures in May showing that 74 of the 530 detainees in Guantánamo were suspected or known to have returned to terrorist activity since their release. They included the commander of the Taleban in Helmand province, Mullah Zakir, whom the British Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Jock Stirrup, called “a key and seemingly effective tactical leader”. Among others who returned to terrorism was Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti who killed six Iraqis in Mosul in 2008.

  This is a disturbing trend from a disturbing policy and it looks to only get worse under the Obama administration. With the knowledge that the would be Christmas day bomber has been arrested and sent to a civilian jail– instead of to GITMO where he belongs– and  was given a taxpayer funded lawyer and United States constitutional rights, the terrorists certainly have to be gaining confidence that the Obama administration just does not take this issue seriously enough. At least President Bush realized that these men did not deserve constitutional rights, that is why they were detained at GITMO in the first place and while President Bush should never have allowed them to return to the front, Barack Obama is preparing to shut down the facility completely.

  And these were the inmates that were considered less of a threat to return to terrorism, the inmates still at GITMO are the ones that the Bush administration considered the most dangerous of the detainees. It is time for Barack Obama to get serious on the issue of terrorism. While he is trying to prove to the world that America is now a kinder, gentler nation, he is in actuality showing the terrorists that America is a weaker nation that can be attacked. And the attacks are rising.

  It is time for Barack Obama to get tough, it is time to show our enemies that we will not back down. This is the only language that they understand. But the administration’s stated goal of closing GITMO, coupled with the fact that we are going to give our enemies the same rights as Americans has made America less safe. We seem to be caught in this mode of balancing the safety of the American people with the right ot the terrorists, instead of putting the lives of Americans first and foremost. It is Barack Obama sworn duty to provide for the national defense, not to worry about whether we are providing our enemies with rights that they do not have nor deserve. He seems to have forgotten that.

   The terrorists are now laughing at us, they are not frightened at the thought of attacking us, in fact they have been emboldened. They have seized upon this opportunity and they plan on making the best of it.

  GITMO needs to remain open and those who are caught planning or trying to attack America need to be handed over to the military for questioning, not be handed over to lawyers with full constitutional rights.