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March 12, 2009
Afghanistan Taliban Leader Was at Gitmo
Afghanistan Taliban leader was at Gitmo
The Taliban's new top operations officer in southern Afghanistan had been a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, the latest example of a freed detainee who took a militant leadership role and a potential complication for the Obama administration's efforts to close the prison. U.S. authorities handed over the detainee to the Afghan government, which in turn released him, according to Pentagon and CIA officials.
Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, formerly Guantanamo prisoner No. 008, was among 13 Afghan prisoners released to the Afghan government in December 2007. Rasoul is now known as Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a nom de guerre that Pentagon and intelligence officials say is used by a Taliban leader who is in charge of operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan.
The officials, who spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to release the information, said Rasoul has joined a growing faction of former Guantanamo prisoners who have rejoined militant groups and taken action against U.S. interests. Pentagon officials have said that as many as 60 former detainees have resurfaced on foreign battlefields.
Pentagon and intelligence officials said Rasoul has emerged as a key militant figure in southern Afghanistan, where violence has been spiking in the last year. Thousands of U.S. troops are preparing to deploy there to fight resurgent Taliban forces.
One intelligence official told the Associated Press that Rasoul's stated mission is to counter the U.S. troop surge. The revelation underscores the Obama administration's dilemma in moving to close the detention camp at Guantanamo and figuring out what to do with the nearly 250 prisoners who remain there.
The Pentagon's preferred option is to hand them over to their home governments for imprisonment. But the Defense Intelligence Agency's growing list of former prisoners that have rejoined the fight shows that, in some cases, that system does not work.
According to the Pentagon, at least 18 former Guantanamo detainees have "returned to the fight" and 43 others are suspected of resuming terrorist activities. The Pentagon has declined to provide a complete list of the former prisoners they suspect are now on the battlefield.
He told the tribunal that he intended to return to a peaceful life in Afghanistan.
"I want to go back home and join my family and work in my land and help my family," he said, according to a U.S. military transcript of the hearing.
National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said Tuesday that at least two Saudi detainees also turned up recently as members of al-Qaida in Yemen after they were released from Guantanamo. The Saudis had been handed over by the U.S. to Saudi Arabia, where they were supposedly rehabilitated as part of a Saudi program to reform extremists.
Wild Thing's comment........
OK shoot them on sight and take no prisoners. No quarter give and none returned. Before saying he would close GITMO, Obama had to have had input from our military I would assume anyway. If he did then he snubbed his ugly nose at them when they gave him any of this information that even ONE terrorists was at it again.
It is a slap in the face of all our troops and those that have been injured or killed. Unforgivable! They risk their lives to catch these terrorists.
.....Thank you Richard for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at March 12, 2009 05:48 AM
Comments
I would agree WT. I have posted in comments all along that there is no need for a prison for terrorist enemies of this country. They should upon contact be dispatched straight to their Allah.
Bob A.
Posted by: Bob A at March 12, 2009 06:52 AM
Shameful. If just one human being dies at the hands of this madman (these madmen)...Obama pulled the triggger and is guilty of manslaughter.
Posted by: Steve Gaston at March 12, 2009 07:21 AM
Easy fix.
Mike boat. Tie down chains. Alot of tie down chains. Open ocean.
Problem fixed.
Posted by: Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN RET at March 12, 2009 11:38 AM
ONE Bullet would have solved THAT problem. CLOWNS. The Taliban wipes with the left after taking a dump on the "Geneva Convention" so 'F' all that "we're above that" NONSENSE and fave REALITY. Our 'Righteousness' has cost ALOT of good people their lives, and that 'Righteousness' is a JOKE, just ask the victims of Ken Lay, Bernie Maddoff, Nagin's STUPIDITY, Daschle, Geithner and his ilk, just for a FEW of the more recent dichotomies to our farcial 'Righteousness' (and I won't EVEN go into the Pervet/Abuser Priests, or the litany of 'Preachers' that that have SCAMMMED MILLIONS of poor suckers out of their cash.). We are DOOMED unless we FACE THE FACT that we are GROSSLY outnumbered where it REALLY matters, and that BOOTS ON THE GROUND. My mouth is sore from grinding my teeth with DISGUST at what is happening.....
Posted by: pontiff alex at March 12, 2009 12:18 PM
HAHA Glenn !! Yeah, "OOOPSY" a few dozen scumbags "slipped over the rail"......
Posted by: pontiff alex at March 12, 2009 12:23 PM
The muzzies have to be laughing at the way we handle prisoners. We treat them better than our own guards, we restrict interrogation methods and we release them to go fight again.
I am sure our troops realize this and the percentage of captured enemy to killed enemy will decrease. Information from prisoners is one of the most valuable battlefield aspects. But if your ignorant politicians are going to turn the prisoner loose to try to kill you again, well, you spend some extra bullets and take fewer prisoners.
Posted by: TomR at March 12, 2009 12:35 PM
America along with possibly England are the only countries on earth who will go to war and lose on purpose. We are so screwed.
Posted by: cuchieddie-25th ID Vet at March 12, 2009 01:09 PM
250 prisoners, send them to Chicago, let that Dumbass, Mayor Daley handle it. In fact move them inot obama's neighborhood. Then they can thank him personally when he visits.
Posted by: Mark at March 12, 2009 04:16 PM
Bob A., I love your blog oand I love how you take them head on with your posts. I am so glad you are doing what you do. The truth needs to be told and hopefull more and more people will understand what the enemy is about.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 12, 2009 07:52 PM
pontiff alex, it is disgusting and I just read this afternoon that they gave a low number account as to how many have been let out and gone back to the Taliban. The aritcle above said 60 and the newer article said that was way off but did not give the higher number.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 12, 2009 11:05 PM
Steve Gaston, I agree completely!
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 12, 2009 11:06 PM
Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN RET, love your fix.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 12, 2009 11:07 PM
Tom, I agree so much, they would have to be laughing. Ouor awesome troops do their job and we as a government should back up what they have done and not let these terrorists out.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 12, 2009 11:09 PM
cuchieddie-25th ID Vet, I wish that was not true but it is.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 12, 2009 11:12 PM
Mark, good one.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 12, 2009 11:14 PM
