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January 2, 2008

Go Directly To Jihad, Do Not Pass Gitmo

By Randall Hoven
Everyone, it seems, from Human Rights Watch  to Amnesty International  to Hollywood  and even to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, is upset with our treatment of Guantanamo detainees and thinks GTMO should be closed. 

Here are the facts:

(1) a large number, perhaps a majority, of GTMO detainees have already been released; and

(2) a good number of those have returned to their deadly jihadi ways, where by their own words "jihad" means "we will attack them in the US and Britain until they either accept Islam or agree to pay jizya." 

And now there is a connection to the Bhutto assassination.

In mid-2005, NPR reported that, "at its height, Guantanamo Bay held about 750 prisoners."  By the spring of 2006, 538 Guantanamo detainees had been released .  By the summer of 2007, the Pentagon reported that "at least 30 former GTMO detainees have taken part in anti-coalition militant activities after leaving U.S. detention."  Since "the US government does not generally track ex-GTMO detainees after repatriation or resettlement," one could surmise that those 30 were only a fraction of former detainees who have returned to militant activities or other anti-US activities.

Why did we release them?  They lied, and we apparently could not prove otherwise. 

"These former detainees successfully lied to US officials, sometimes for over three years.  Many detainees later identified as having returned to fight against the U.S. with terrorists falsely claimed to be farmers, truck drivers, cooks, small-scale merchants, or low-level combatants.  Other common cover stories include going to Afghanistan to buy medicines, to teach the Koran, or to find a wife.  Many of these stories appear so often, and are subsequently proven false that we can only conclude they are part of their terrorist training."
One of those 30 released was Abdullah Mehsud. 

"After his release he went back to the fight, becoming a militant leader within the Mehsud tribe in southern Waziristan...  In mid-October 2004, Mehsud directed the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in Pakistan...  In July 2007, Mehsud carried out a suicide bombing as Pakistani Police closed in on his position.  Over 1,000 people are reported to have attended his funeral services."
Abdullah had a little brother, Baitullah:

"Until 2005, Baitullah lived in the shadow of his daring and charismatic brother, Abdullah Mehsud, who, with his long black hair, was considered a terrorist rock star.  Abdullah fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan against the Northern Alliance and in 1996 lost a leg when he stepped on a land mine.  He was taken captive by warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum who turned him over to American forces.  Abdullah Mehsud was sent to Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba and held for two years, insisting the whole time that he was just an innocent tribesman." 
After Abdullah's death, Baitullah took over the Mehsud operation:. 

"Baitullah commands a force of 20,000 to 30,000 fighters in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan.  He has dispatched suicide bombers to kill Pakistani police and soldiers in Swat, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, and Peshawar.  On August 30, his forces brazenly captured 213 Pakistani soldiers and held them hostage for two months until his demands were met." 

According to the BBC , Baitullah

"is said to operate under a legendary Afghan Taleban commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani.  Jalaluddin Haqqani is believed to have helped Osama Bin Laden escape US bombing in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains in early 2002."
But most recently, Baitullah has been implicated in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. According to Anthony Bruno, Baitullah said in an interview with the BBC,
"Allah on 480 occasions in the Holy Koran extols Muslims to wage jihad. We only fulfill God's orders. Only jihad can bring peace to the world...We will continue our struggle until foreign troops are thrown out. Then we will attack them in the US and Britain until they either accept Islam or agree to pay jizya (a tax in Islam for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state)."
If these are the types of people already released from GTMO for insufficient evidence, what does that say about those still held there?  They did not just happen to be in Pakistan or Afghanistan for a wedding.  They lie, they kill, they torture.  And they do it on scales that can topple governments and democratic movements, and that is exactly their intention.  In short, they are as dangerous as anyone could possibly be.  Yet critics of the U.S. want to set them free.

Once again, the U.S. gets blamed for being too harsh, when it has really been to lenient.
 
Randall Hoven can be reached at randall.hoven@gmail.com.
on "Go Directly To Jihad, Do Not Pass Gitmo"