The Pentagon has confirmed that a Kuwaiti released from the US detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, three years ago carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq last month.
Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi and two other Kuwaitis are reported by their families to have taken part in an attack on Iraqi security forces in Mosul, a northern city that is the scene of intense fighting.
Although the families did not specify a date, seven people were killed in a suicide attack in Mosul on April 26.
In answer to the title’s question, why yes, she was. Along with these five nitwits and the appeasement monkey Obama-wamma-slamma.
What do all you weak-kneed idjits have to say now?
This is an appropriate place for the sage advice of Jeffrey Breinholt:
It is easy for human rights organizations to criticize Gitmo. The harder problem is finding an acceptable solution to detain terrorists willing to give their lives to kill us. So far, the best one seems to be the Military Tribunals, which might have offered a better alternative than repatriating Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi to Kuwait, where could try to kill those who helped liberate his home country on behalf of those who invaded it.
Technorati Tags: Guantánamo Bay, Gitmo. Terrorism, Hillary, Obama
There are a few problems with your analysis, Marc.
First, the assumption that torture is an effective method of interrogation. When the torture is harsh enough, people will say anything to make it stop. Anything. Not so much the truth as whatever they think the interrogator wants to hear.
Second, the assumption that the inhabitants of Gitmo are terrorists. They are accused of terrorism, often on virtually no evidence, and have been through no due process to establish whether they are or are not. Frequently, it transpires that they are not, and they end up being released without charge after several years in torture camp, as was the case with Sami al Hajj.
Third, the assumption that US foreign policy is formulated with the intention of making the world a safer place, at least for US citizens. That runs contrary to all we’ve ever seen, really, especially in the last decade or so.
So let’s take the example you point to, of a man who was freed from Guantanamo and, later, carried out a suicide attack on Vichy-Iraqi forces. Your argument seems to be, never release anyone from Guantanamo ever. But hasn’t it occured to you that maybe, just maybe, it was because of what they suffered in US custody that inspired the two men with a desire for revenge? Is that not even within the bounds of the possible, that four years of arbitrary torture might just fill you with hatred, with an urge to hurt those who hurt you?
It could be that you dispute the findings of the Kuwaiti court that judged him not guilty, after not hearing the evidence acquired under torture. For both moral reasons and the practical reasons I outlined above, I think it is right to exclude such evidence, but no matter, let’s run with your implied hypothesis, that the decision to transfer him was made not because he was deemed harmless, but for political reasons. Maybe, maybe not, but you can’t pretend that prison camps are supposed to be apolitical,for security purposes only.
Detainees in Guantanamo – just like Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah and Hamas – give the US political leverage over their home countries. The repatriations of al Ajmi and al Hajj to their respective countries won’t have come for free. In the case of al Hajj, they were transparently using him for political ends: though he was obviously not guilty of any crime, they spent years trying to extract a “confession” that al Jazeera worked for al Qaeda. A few years ago, remember, al Jazeera frequently found itself in the crosshairs of the “Coalition”, and it is easy to see how such a confession could be useful.
Even if you reject all of the above, remember that we are talking about the actions of one man. One, out of all the detainees that have passed through Guantanamo. I don’t know the exact number of people we’re talking about, but according to one of the articles you linked to there are now nearly three hundred detainees, down from a high of nearly eight hundred, so we’re looking at five hundred people at the very very least, one of whom has gone on to attack the US’ allies in occupied Iraq. So that’s nothing in percentage terms, and if you want to make all the inhabitants of Gitmo suffer for the acts of one of their number, then you’re talking about collective punishment – illegal under international law, and rightly so.
Dave – “When the torture is harsh enough, people will say anything to make it stop. Anything. Not so much the truth as whatever they think the interrogator wants to hear.”
I see you’ve taken your cue from the many social commentators who offer misguided, alarmist and reflexive responses when discussing this issue.
“Oh OMFG, twist their testicles in a vice and they will give wrong info!”
And so? Put a suspected bank robber under an interrogation lamp in a detectives office chair and he’s likely to give poor, bad or misleading info as well.
What happens when that occurs? The police track down what is truth and what is lie, same as when a jihadit-cut-throat does the same.
Given the choice between inflicting a relatively small level of harm on a wrongdoer and saving an innocent person, it is verging on moral indecency to prefer the interests of the wrongdoer.
Put another way, fuck him, and or her!
“Even if you reject all of the above, remember that we are talking about the actions of one man.”
Even if? NO, I reject any and every argument you have given there’s no “if” about it.
“so we’re looking at five hundred people at the very very least, one of whom has gone on to attack the US’ allies in occupied Iraq. So that’s nothing in percentage terms, and if you want to make all the inhabitants of Gitmo suffer for the acts of one of their number, then you’re talking about collective punishment – illegal under international law, and rightly so.”
First of all you presume the number is only one. Why? You can’t possibly know and you toss that canard out to strengthen your argument.
Do you know what has happened to 245 of the approximately 360 men released from Gitmo and subsequently released by their home countries?
Where are they, what are they doing? You haven’t clue #1 where they are but you’re “proud” to hold up this single case as if it were a single case.