It is a well-known fact in Washington that then Vice President Cheney proudly micro-managed all things Gitmo (authorizing torture and determining detainee releases). And as he continues his hyper-partisan attacks on President Obama and the Democratic Party let it be clearly understood that Al Qaeda's resurgence in Yemen can, in no small part, be traced back to Dick Cheney himself.
In 2007, then Vice President Dick Cheney personally authorized the release of 11 Saudis from Guantanamo Bay, who then passed through a leaky Saudi halfway house terrorist rehabilitation program to rejoin Al Qaeda. Two of the 11 former detainees took the express jihadi underground railroad to rejoin Al Qaeda in Yemen.
In February, 2009, the New York Times reported that U.S. counterterrorism officials confirmed that one of the Cheney repats was Said Al-Shihri, who became the deputy leader of the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda, and that he was suspected of being involved in a deadly attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen in 2007. Shortly after the attack, Shihri appeared in an Al Sahab Al Qaeda video production along with another Cheney repat identified as Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi, who also rejoined Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Based on a comprehensive review by the Defense Intelligence Agency 14% of the 530 Gitmo detainees released through Cheney's direct approval (74 to be exact) have either been identified as reengaging in terrorism or suspected of doing so.
So, let me get this straight. Cheney authorized the release of unrepentant hardened terrorists to his Saudi friends. Having cut their shackles from the Saudis, these escapees are now training and recruiting the likes of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and threatening to attack the U.S. embassy in Yemen, and Cheney has the chutzpah to accuse Democrats of being soft on terrorism!
At best, Cheney's 2007 authorization to transfer Gitmo detainees to Saudi Arabia represented a fawning leap of blind faith in Saudi assurances that these detainees were perfect guinea pigs for an unproven terror rehab program and would no longer pose a threat to them or to us. However, the alarming recidivism rate has had dire and direct consequences on American security.
At worst, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its subchapter in Yemen should dispatch to Cheney a warm jihadi thank you note for playing such a direct role in their reconstitution, their resurgence, and their increasing danger to the U.S. homeland and our diplomats in Yemen.
Ordinarily, had Cheney kept reasonably quiet like his former boss instead of pretentiously anointing himself the sole defender of America's safety and security (as if every decision he made kept America safe), his decision to authorize the release of Al Qaeda operatives now back in the fight against the U.S. in Yemen and elsewhere would not have warranted a revisit -- just another footnote in the history of Cheney's imperfect logic where he is often wrong, but never in doubt.
However, in view of Cheney's willfully inaccurate partisan attacks he deserves to now be held accountable for the Yemeni Al Qaeda terror sanctuary he helped man through his own micromanagement of Gitmo detainees and misguided deference to his Halliburton buddies in Saudi Arabia. As a result, America is a whole lot less safe because of Mr. Cheney's own decisions.
How loyal are some military personnel to Cheney? It just appears to me that there are far too many security leaks going on of late. Why is it that all of a sudden you have people in the military too stupid to think clearly and letting so many stupid mistakes happen.
My guess is that Cheney is at work? How he's doing it is anyone's guess. But he's knee deep in what is happening security wise at home and abroad. The push is to make Obama look like he is soft on national security. Who's watching Cheney? I recommend that people watch the movie, Seven Days in May, a movie that depicts the military plotting to take over the U.S. government; just replace the military with the Republican Party; partisan thinkers, you name it. Something is happening, though.
The only connection to Obama is the hate these people have for him. People better wake up about this man. He is dangerous.
http://obamareport.blogspot.com/2010/01/abdulmutallabs-passport-surfaces.html
Another passenger told Haskell that he had seen a minor, apparently a Sudanese refuge, who looked nearly identical to AbdulMuttalab being accompanied on the airplane by a flight attendant - who was likely the well-dressed man that Haskell had seen. Since he was a minor, and was travelling alone, he was accompanied at all times by an airport employee. As a refugee he might not have had a passport. In any case, AbdulMuttalab clearly had a passport.
The logical inference that follows, however, does NOT favor Cheney, at all (rather, it is even worse): the Bush/Cheney policies of indefinite detention and "harsh interrogation methods" (what we'd call "torture" in ordinary English) MADE jihadis out of people who were probably not so disposed, before they were treated this way.
The difference is important, because if we assume these men "returned" to the fight, that argument will be used to justify continuation of the very policies that turned one out of five of those detained and then released to violence against us. Its pretty clear something must be done to prevent more of those we release from following this pattern, but that something should NOT be more of the same mindless, lawless practice that placed us in this dilemma in the first place.
You are now my newest BFF.
But does anyone pay any attention to you? I do hope so. I would like to see dick cheenee held responsible for his treasonous talk.
I cannot believe all the intelligence failures that have occurred in the last 10 years are purely accidental. At some point gross negligence is as good as deliberate harm.
Shouldn't we be putting it into REAL ISSUES?
If we continue to do this, are we aiding and abetting him. (I know, me included!)
Would the best thing would be, if there is another media item about him, that there would be NO comments here???
We can agree on that. Cheney made a mistake in releasing them on pressure from the left to do so.
Cheney never did anything Cheney didn't want to do. To assert he was 'forced by the left' is farcical on it's face.
Evaluate other surpressed facts about the incident here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m1d2-US-lies-about-Flight-253-crotch-bomber-patsy-summary-of-the-evidence-Yemen-attack-implication
To begin with, there was no evidence extant at the time of the releases that these were either '
'hardened'' nor ''unrepentant''. Indeed, a simple GOOGLE search bearing the words '' NGOS And Other Groups Pressure Bush White House To Release GTMO Detainees'' turns up thousands of hits, from vintage HUFFPO, to FIREDOGLAKE , DAILY KOS, and other leftist creatures, to Democrat members of Congress including Pelosi, Boxer, Sanchez,Kennedy, and Kerry,from the ACLU, to AMNESTY and the RED CROSS,from editorials from the New York Times, WaPo, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe,NEWSWEAK, TIME, and Seattle Times ,all demanding prisoner releases all during and before the year of 2007.
Ginsberg cannot have it both ways, first insinuating that ''Cheney'' was ''responsible'' without examining his own role in demanding that more GTMO prisoners be released at the time of the Bush presidency.
All of these new security procedures and requirements being forced upon us, all in the name of fighting terror, have nothing to do with fighting terror at all, it's all about conditioning the American population. More and more, we sit and watch as almost all of our constitutional rights being stripped away, but it's all for a good cause right, it's all about fighting terror and staying safe. The Patriot Act, warrant-less wiretapping, rendition, indefinite detention, TORTURE. These are all prohibited by the constitution, OUR CONSTITUTION. But as long as we're fighting terror. All media is controlled by a few corporations, so we only hear what we're permitted to hear, and we're all told to feel the way they want us to feel.
The problem is that we are allowing it to happen, we are allowing the conditioning to happen, as long as we can watch TV and check our email, we allow this.
We should all be ashamed.
Israel and Cheney were duped by hardened captured mujeahedins pretending to switch sides. Instead of becoming our spies these became more dedicated mujahedins duping us. Cheney obeyed incompetent Saudis that made him rich and Israelis whose neocons helped him become VP, and screwed-up badly. Our Republican leaders, our corrupt Saudi allies and the ideologically blinded Israelis couldn’t understand mujahedin dedication to cause for they only know dedication to money. And so the war goes on.