by Jim Kouri
Clash Daily Guest Contributor
On Thursday, in an almost secret action by the Obama Administration, the Department of Defense decided –based on the results of the first review conducted under President Barack Obama’s Executive Order by the Periodic Review Board (PRB) — to release Guantanamo Bay detainee Mahmud Abd Al Aziz Al Mujahid, according to a Pentagon report.
The PRB members said they found “that continued law of war detention is no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the United States and that Mujahid is therefore eligible for transfer subject to appropriate security and humane treatment conditions.”
“The Al Qaeda terrorist — Osama Bin Laden’s bodyguard — determined to be ‘too dangerous to be released’ from Guantanamo just a few years ago — will be freed from the military prison because President Obama’s new parole board found that he no longer poses a ‘significant threat to the United States,’ ” said officials from the watchdog group Judicial Watch on Friday.
This latest release is being approved despite news reports by Fox News Channel’s Catherine Herridge that revealed a former Guantanamo detainee, Sufian bin Qumu, actively participated in the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Libya as a chief of Ansar al-Sharia, an al-Qaeda-affiliate.
According to Herridge’s reporting, “Bin Qumu was released from the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba despite having historic ties to the Al Qaeda network and training at bin Laden’s Torkham camp, according to information obtained from his Gitmo file.”
“That information makes this week’s news that bin Laden’s former bodyguard, Mahmud Abd Al Aziz Al Mujahid, will soon be free, all the more outrageous,” noted Judicial Watch officials.
In 2010, President Obama’s own task force claimed that Mujahid was still too dangerous to release from his incarceration. That task force recommended he be put on a special “forever prisoner” list of 48 indefinite detainees. His Pentagon file says he’s a high risk likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests.
That same defense file states that Mujahid remains a member of al-Qaeda who served as a bodyguard for bin Laden and that some of his family members continue to maintain ties to al-Qaeda terrorists, including other bin Laden bodyguards and Gitmo detainees.
Judicial Watch maintains that:
“[The] Detainee is a committed jihadist who received theological training from, and was recruited by, radical Yemeni shaykhs who continue to recruit Yemeni youth to participate in hostilities against US and coalition forces. Detainee’s assessed commitment to jihadis supported by his discussions with another JTF-GTMO detainee on methods to conduct suicide during detention.”
But President Obama wishes to finally keep his promise to his far-left radicals and close-down the military prison that houses some of the world’s most dangerous killers, according to an Examiner news story.
“Gitmo still houses 155 men and the president created a special parole panel, a six-member Periodic Review Board, to essentially clear out the facility. Mujahid is the first prisoner to be considered by the panel, though dozens of Gitmo detainees have already been approved for release to meet the demands of the leftist groups that have long called for the facility to shut down,” states Judicial Watch‘s report.
The Defense Department fact sheet on the parole board states that the PRB process was established by President Obama’s March 7, 2011 Executive Order (EO) 13567.
Image: Courtesy of: http://anterotesis.com/wordpress/2011/05/the-clerkenwell-house-of-detention/
Jim Kouri, CPP, is founder and CEO of Kouri Associates, a homeland security, public safety and political consulting firm. He’s formerly Fifth Vice-President, now a Board Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, an editor for ConservativeBase.com, a columnist for Examiner.com, and a contributor to KGAB radio news, a Fox News affiliate.
