Pentagon Releases 15 ‘High-Risk’ Gitmo Detainees to UAE

Source: Weekly Standard | August 16, 2016 | Thomas Joscelyn

Even the Obama administration deemed them “too dangerous.”

The Defense Department has transferred 15 detainees—12 Yemenis and 3 Afghan citizens—from Guantanamo to the United Arab Emirates. The Pentagon’s web page says nothing about the risks the detainees pose beyond the fact that the transfers supposedly “took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures.” The DOD thanks the UAE “for its humanitarian gesture,” implying that the transfers were necessary to promote human welfare.

Here are some facts about the detainees, based on leaked and declassified documents.

All 15 were deemed “high” risks to the United States, its interests or allies by Joint Task Force – Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), which oversees the detention facility.

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Who are the 15 detainees transferred to the UAE?

According to JTF-GTMO’s leaked threat assessments, they include: four former bodyguards for Osama bin Laden (see here, here, here and here); a Yemeni who had a “supervisory role” in bin Laden’s “security force”; two members of bin Laden’s 55th Arab Brigade, which was al Qaeda’s primary paramilitary force in pre-9/11 Afghanistan (see here and here); a “sub-commander” at Osama bin Laden’s Tora Bora complex; an al Qaeda “instructor” who swore allegiance to bin Laden; a member of an al Qaeda IED cell that planned to conduct attacks on U.S. and Coalition forces in Afghanistan; an al Qaeda “explosives expert” who “directly assisted the planning and implementing of attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces in Afghanistan”; two al Qaeda operatives “who planned to participate in terrorist operations targeting US forces in Karachi, Pakistan (PK), and possibly inside the United States” (see here and here); and two other now former detainees who allegedly took part in attacks against the United States and its allies in Afghanistan.

While the Defense Department portrays the transfer as a “humanitarian” move, the intelligence professionals at JTF-GTMO were more concerned about what these jihadis could do if they returned to the battlefield.

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  • Consistent August 16, 2016 at 12:11 pm #9293

    Consistent August 16, 2016 at 12:27 pm #9296

    Consistent August 16, 2016 at 3:37 pm #9310

    Woodcutter August 16, 2016 at 10:59 pm #9314

    This, coupled with his having pardoned more criminals serving life sentences than the previous 9 president combined, makes one wonder why he thinks so little of the “rule of law.”

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