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6 Yemeni jihadis at Guantanamo Bay sent to Oman

Jun 13, 2015 5:19 pm By Robert Spencer

guantanamo2“If they are not securely detained, no one should be surprised if they travel to Yemen and re-engage in terrorist activities.” Uh, yeah.

“6 Yemenis at Guantanamo Bay are sent to Oman, ending pause in transfer of suspected terrorists,” by Nedra Pickler, Associated Press, June 13, 2015:

A pause in prisoner transfers from Guantanamo Bay has ended with the arrival Saturday in Oman of six Yemenis long held at the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists.

It was the first movement of detainees out of Guantanamo in five months as Congress considers new restrictions on transfers.

The six men boarded a flight Friday from the U.S. facility in Cuba, and their transfer reduced Guantanamo’s population to 116. President Barack Obama has now transferred more than half the 242 detainees who were at Guantanamo when he was sworn into office in 2009 after campaigning to close it.

But he is far from achieving that goal. With just a year and a half left in his second term, final transfer approvals are coming slowly from the Pentagon and lawmakers are threatening to make movement out even harder.

The transfers to Oman are the first to win final approval by Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who has been on the job four months.

The six include Emad Abdullah Hassan, who has been on hunger strikes since 2007 in protest of his confinement without charge since 2002.

In court filings protesting force-feeding practices, Hassan said detainees have been force-fed up to a gallon at a time of nutrients and water. The U.S. accuses him of being one of many bodyguards to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and of being part of a group planning to attack NATO and American troops after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

The five other detainees sent to Oman were identified by the Pentagon as:

—Idris Ahmad ‘Abd Al Qadir Idris and Jalal Salam Awad Awad, also both alleged bodyguards to bin Laden.

—Sharaf Ahmad Muhammad Mas’ud, whom the U.S. said fought American soldiers at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, before his capture in Pakistan.

—Saa’d Nasser Moqbil Al Azani, a religious teacher whom the U.S. believes had ties to bin Laden’s religious adviser; and

—Muhammad Ali Salem Al Zarnuki, who allegedly arrived in Afghanistan as early as 1998 to fight and support the Taliban.

“The United States is grateful to the government of Oman for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” the Defense Department said in a statement announcing the transfer. “The United States coordinated with the government of Oman to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures.”

The state-run Oman News Agency reported early Saturday that the men arrived in the sultanate and would be living there “temporarily.” Sultan Qaboos bin Said approved the men being in the country to aid the U.S. government while also taking into account the men’s “humanitarian circumstances,” the agency reported.

Oman’s decision to accept the men comes as it has played an increasingly important role in mediations between the U.S. and Iran as world powers try to strike a nuclear deal over the Islamic Republic’s contested atomic program.

The 11 detainees transferred so far in 2015 have all been from Yemen. Forty-three of the 51 remaining detainees who have been approved for transfer are from Yemen.

The Obama administration won’t send them home due to instability in Yemen, which has seen Shiite rebels known as Houthis take the capital, Sanaa, and other areas despite a campaign of Saudi-led airstrikes targeting them. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the network’s Yemeni branch that the U.S. considers to be the most dangerous affiliate, also remains active.

“We are working feverishly to transfer each of the 51 detainees currently approved for transfer,” said Ian Moss, who works on detainee transfers at the State Department. “It is not in our national security interest to continue to detain individuals if we as a government have determined that they can be transferred from Guantanamo responsibly.”

Some lawmakers want to impose stiffer requirements for transferring Guantanamo detainees to other countries. Obama has threatened to veto a House bill in part because of the Guantanamo restrictions.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, noted that Oman shares a border with Yemen and she said the administration had failed to provide sufficient assurances that the six would not return to the battlefield.

“If they are not securely detained, no one should be surprised if they travel to Yemen and re-engage in terrorist activities,” Ayotte, R-N.H., said in a statement….

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Filed Under: Featured, Oman, Yemen Tagged With: Ash Carter, Kelly Ayotte


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Comments

  1. Angemon says

    Jun 13, 2015 at 5:35 pm

    “If they are not securely detained, no one should be surprised if they travel to Yemen and re-engage in terrorist activities,” Ayotte, R-N.H., said in a statement….

    You mean that all that time in Gitmo did nothing to show them the error of their ways? I’m shocked, SHOCKED!!!

  2. Georg says

    Jun 13, 2015 at 5:45 pm

    If neolibs expressed 1:3,000 the outrage about 9/11 as they do the detention of these guys I might care. Even if only 25% of them were involved in terrorism I couldn’t care less about the others’ plight as nobody ever does about 9/11 victims.

  3. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Jun 13, 2015 at 6:12 pm

    These are the best of times of Moslem activists, called “terrorists” by our news entertainers. These are their salad daze, and by “their” I mean *both* the Jihadis and the news entertainers. The former gets to pursue their dream of a Sharia World and a throne on up in the Moslem porno heaven Jannat; the latter gets plenty of blood and gore to report, there always seems to be a “Breaking!” news flash that a Moslem did this or that.

    I knew things were moving in the wrong direction when I saw that photo of the Uighur “terrorists” sitting on a low wall overlooking the ocean somewhere in Bermuda, smiling and licking on ice cream cones, having taken a short jaunt from their digs at a high priced hotel that the U.S. gubmint had put them up at until suitable transport could be arranged to fly back to the Mideast to rejoin the Cause. As I recall Prez Obama, still early in his term then, had released them from Gitmo as a symbol of Islamo-American detente.

    And now more are to be set free. Well, not really free, but free to fade back into the Sharia to pursue their dreams.

  4. profitsbeard says

    Jun 13, 2015 at 6:15 pm

    Is it not treason to release terrorists during wartime?

    • mortimer says

      Jun 14, 2015 at 12:35 am

      Agree. Would they have released captured SS officers during WWII? No.

      A number of those released have returned to jihad. All the detainees should be deprogrammed from Islam before release.

      • particolor says

        Jun 14, 2015 at 6:44 am

        They Promised to be Good !! 🙂

        • Keith W. Jordan says

          Jun 15, 2015 at 10:41 am

          LOL

  5. duh_swami says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 9:56 am

    Jihad…’fight them until’…has no expiration date. Once you sign up you’re in it till the bitter end.

    • particolor says

      Jun 14, 2015 at 6:47 pm

      Islam is a Lemon ! 🙁

      • EYESOPEN says

        Jun 14, 2015 at 7:57 pm

        And that’s an insult to lemons!

        • particolor says

          Jun 15, 2015 at 5:27 am

          But nice with sugar on Halal Jizra Pancakes ! 🙂

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