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DC Judge Freed Alleged ISIS Terrorist From Gitmo

Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar, a former detainee in the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in Cuba, has been arrested by French authorities on charges of being an active recruiter for the Islamic State terror group. He was arrested with five other acquaintances (three men and two women) who are also accused of being members of the recruitment network.

Lahmar is an Algerian national who was arrested by Bosnian authorities in 2001 when he was allegedly part of a jihadist group plotting to bomb the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. Lahmar was later transferred to Guantanamo in 2002.

After Lahmar’s capture, the Pentagon determined that he was a senior member of the Bosnia-based Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which was coordinating with Al Qaeda on the plot to bomb the U.S. embassy. The Department of Defense ruled at the time of his capture that he was a high risk to pose a threat to U.S. interests, if released.

Additionally, the Pentagon claimed he attempted to travel between Afghanistan and Iran to meet with Al Qaeda leaders. Officials also determined that he was “known in Bosnia as being a vehemently anti-Western Islamic extremist.” He also reportedly stated that “attacks should be carried out against US troops in Bosnia because he believed the US was the number one enemy of Islam.”

Lahmar was freed (along with four other Algerian nationals) from Guantanamo in 2009 after a District of Columbia judge ruled that there was no evidence supporting his classification as an “enemy combatant.” He was then transferred to France after former French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to take him in.

Eight years later, Lahmar is an alleged Islamic State terrorist in a country that is in the midst of a spike in jihad terror.

There are 41 remaining at Guantanamo Bay. They include high-profile terrorists like the “9-11 five,” among whom is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

President Trump has promised to keep the detention center open and “load it up with some bad dudes,” reversing former President Obama’s pledge to shut down the facility. (For more from the author of “DC Judge Freed Alleged ISIS Terrorist From Gitmo” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Obama’s Making America Safer? Sure Thing! Just Ask These Former Gitmo Detainees

As the number of Guantanamo military detention facility detainees continues to shrink, some may wonder, “Who exactly is being released from Guantanamo, and where are they going?”

In keeping with President Obama’s agenda, the administration is continuing to forge ahead with the goal to shut down Guantanamo’s military detention facility in Cuba, and Vice President Biden said Thursday the facility would likely be terminated by the end of Obama’s term.

At the rate Obama is releasing detainees from the facility, it appears very likely he will reach his goal, and detainees will be interspersed throughout the world.

“Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values,” Obama said earlier this year. “It undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law.”

But is he jeopardizing the safety of Americans?

Since Obama took office in 2009, he has released 177 detainees — 46 in this year alone. Many of these are from Yemen and connected to al Qaeda in some way.

One of the conditions that must be met to release a detainee is that the individual no longer poses a threat to the U.S., its interests, or its allies. Sounds legit. However, the screening process for this is not 100 percent fool-proof.

Just last month, Congress raised concerns about the process for transferring detainees, due to the fact Obama administration officials could not track some of the detainees and who may still be dangerous to the U.S.

After a prisoner affiliated with al Qaeda was released to Uruguay, he disappeared in June. Previously, Congress had been told that Uruguay was an acceptable location to release detainees. But in actuality, Uruguay doesn’t view detainees as former terrorists, but rather as “refugees.” As a result, the Uruguayan government doesn’t restrict their travel or check up on them.

Furthermore, the Obama administration earlier this month released a whopping 15 detainees — the most the administration has ever released. All 15 are affiliated with al Qaeda and were sent to the United Arab Emirates.

One of those 15 Mahmoud Abd al Aziz Abd al Mujahid had knowledge of planned terrorist attacks and is listed on al Qaeda documents. Another, Mohammed Ahmad Said al Edah, was a supervisor in Osama bin Laden’s security force. And then there’s Abdel Qadir Hussein al Mudhaffari, who happened to be the former bodyguard to bin Laden.

Not only do the Department of Defense memorandums from 2008 recommended the continued detention of all 15 men, but they also listed them as “high risk” and that they were likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests, and its allies.

So with this in mind, do you feel safer with these terrorists back on the loose? (For more from the author of “Obama’s Making America Safer? Sure Thing! Just Ask These Former Gitmo Detainees” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

You Won’t Believe the Latest Gitmo Detainee Mr. Obama Decided to Spring

For those who doubt the cold-hearted nature of the man currently leading this nation, Barack Obama’s sham commission is releasing a high risk GITMO prisoner with extensive training in poisons, an al-Qaida member of bin Laden’s 55th Brigade. Never a good prisoner, he didn’t try to give the appearance of being reformed.

He was sent to Italy.

Our military likely died at his hands because he was on the front lines and military risked their lives to capture him. He is a high risk candidate to go back to the fight and continue his goal of attacking US targets.

Obama wants to close GITMO and Americans be damned.

For the 83% of Democrats who support and admire Barack Obama, I ask why?

(For more from the author of “You Won’t Believe the Latest Gitmo Detainee Mr. Obama Decided to Spring” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Obama Releases Bin Laden’s Bodyguard From Gitmo

The Obama administration released Guantanamo Bay detainee Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab despite a review board’s recommendation that he remain in United States custody.

Wahab was reportedly a bodyguard to Al Qaida leader Usama bin Laden and had a relationship with the former head of Al Qaida’s global operations, Nasir al Wuhayshi. The review board feared Wahab would return to the battlefield after spending his time in Afghanistan with bin Laden, “fighting on the frontlines, [his] possible selection for a hijacking plot, and significant training.”

U.S. authorities concluded that he continued lying to his interrogators as late as 2008, insisting he traveled to Afghanistan to “teach the Koran.” A leaked U.S. military report assessed all of Wahab’s statements “to be false” and found he was employing evasion strategies used by other trained terrorists.

The report further noted Wahab’s “ties to a relative who is a possible extremist, raises concerns about his susceptibility to re-engagement.” While Wahab is being released to Montenegro his future incarceration is no longer at the discretion of the United States government. Guantanamo Bay detainees have returned to the battlefield in the past, setting a troubling precedent.

In 2007 the U.S. released Taliban commander Abdul Qayyum Zakir from Guantanamo Bay to the government of Afghanistan. Zakir was subsequently released from Afghan prison for no apparent reason whatsoever and returned to the Afghan battlefield as a senior commander.

Zakir has since spent his time in Afghanistan masterminding plots to kill US soldiers in southern Helmand province, and reportedly makes millions of dollars in the illicit opium trade. Zakir is currently spearheading the successful Taliban advance against the Afghan National Security Forces in Helmand province, pacified by U.S. troops as late as 2012.

Despite significant ties to known high profile terrorists Wahab will be granted asylum in Montenegro for “re-socialization” and “a return to his family.” When Montenegro accepted another Yemeni detainee in January 2016 it specified the detainee would not required to remain in the country but would “eventually be free to choose the country they want to live in.” (For more from the author of “Obama Releases Bin Laden’s Bodyguard From Gitmo” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Military Tells Congress It Can’t Send Gitmo Detainees to U.S.

Just as President Barack Obama is planning to send Congress his plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison this year, leaders of the military say it will not transfer any detainees to the U.S., unless the law prohibiting such transfers is changed.

Lt. General William Mayville Jr., the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said as much in a letter to Congress last week, which I obtained. Mayville’s letter gets to the heart of a knotty constitutional issue on Guantanamo: Does President Obama have the authority to close the facility without the consent of Congress?

Writing to 16 House members who served in the military, Mayville writes: “Current law prohibits the use of funds to ‘transfer, release or assist in the transfer or release’ of detainees of Guantanamo Bay to or within the United States, and prohibits the construction, modification or acquisition of any facility within the United States to house any Guantanamo detainee. The Joint Staff will not take any action contrary to those restrictions” . . .

Unlike Mayville, Obama himself has been coy on whether the law prevents him from closing Guantanamo. In December at his year-end press conference, the president said, “We will wait until Congress has definitively said no to a well-thought-out plan with numbers attached to it before we say anything definitive about my executive authority here.” (Read more from “Military Tells Congress It Can’t Send Gitmo Detainees to U.S.” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Obama Admin Releases Another Gitmo Detainee Originally Deemed 'Too Dangerous to Release'

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

By Leah Barkoukis.

The Obama administration released one of Guantanamo Bay’s longest-serving prisoners on Wednesday. Fawzi al-Odah, who had previously been classified as too dangerous to release, was sent back to Kuwait on the condition that he would serve one year in a militant-rehabilitation center.

In July, the board determined that al-Odah had most likely undergone terrorist training in Afghanistan and may have fought alongside the al-Qaida or the Taliban. The board, however, decided he had only a low level of training, did not have a leadership position in either group and could be released under certain conditions. The board has cleared a handful other detainees but they have not yet been released.

His father, Khalid al-Odah, said in several interviews with The Associated Press over the years that his son was only a teacher in Afghanistan who had been wrongly turned over to the U.S. authorities in exchange for a bounty. […]

Read more from this story HERE.

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200px-Fouzi_Khalid_Abdullah_al_Awda-300x180Obama continues back-door action with release of suspected terrorist

By Allen West.

Yesterday I watched President Barack Hussein Obama give his one-and-half hour post-election press conference. If I were his advisor, I probably would have recommended against it.

It was a rambling sort of event with no real direction and included countless false statements – such as regarding immigration reform. He said it was a goal of his first term, but Republicans kept him from achieving it. But in the first two years of his first term, President Obama had a filibuster proof majority — which he used to ram through legislation like Obamacare and Dodd-Frank. He could have done the same with immigration reform.

I must admit, there was a part of me who felt bad for Obama — as someone who seems unable to accept responsibility for anything. I even went back and watched Bill Clinton after the 1994 midterm debacle he suffered and even he took immediate responsibility as the president. I’m trying to understand what Obama meant when he said, “The two-thirds of you who did not vote, I hear your voice as well.” I guess Obama wasn’t pleased that droves didn’t come out in support of his fundamental transformation of America.

The problem that President Obama fails to understand is that he is seen as just another politician — no different from any other. Also, it’s amazing that he continues to speak of Washington DC as if it’s an entity completely detached from his existence.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sources: Dozens of Former Gitmo Detainees Now Fighting With ISIS

As many as 20 to 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees — some of whom were released within the last three years — are suspected by intelligence and Defense officials of having joined forces with the Islamic State and other militant groups inside Syria, Fox News has learned.

The development has cemented fears that the U.S. military would once again encounter militants taken off the battlefield.

The intelligence offers a mixed picture, and officials say the figures are not exact. But they are certain at least some of the released detainees are fighting with the Islamic State, or ISIS, on the ground inside Syria. Others are believed to be supporting Al Qaeda or the affiliated al-Nusra Front in Syria.

A number of former detainees also have chosen to help these groups from outside the country, financing operations and supporting their propaganda campaigns.

Sources who spoke to Fox News were not able to provide the identities of the fighters.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama to Free Gitmo Terrorist ‘Because He Took Up Yoga’

Photo Credit: ReutersIf you thought President Obama’s release of five top Taliban commanders in exchange for POW Bowe Bergdahl was bad, wait until you see what his Gitmo parole board plans.

Desperate to empty the Guantanamo Bay prison by the end of his term, Obama quietly is giving “get out of jail free” cards for the flimsiest of excuses.

One al Qaeda suspect captured in Afghanistan is considered reformed because he took up yoga and read a biography of the Dalai Lama. Another is eligible for release because of his “positive attitude.”

And one longtime detainee, a former bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, is now harmless because he’s going to start a “milk and honey farm.”

The Periodic Review Board already helped clear 78 of the remaining 149 prisoners for release, documents show, and has scheduled more hearings for this summer.

Read more from this story HERE.

Taliban Propose Prisoner Swap of US Soldier for Gitmo Detainees (+video)

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Kathy Gannon. The Afghan Taliban is ready to free a U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay as a conciliatory gesture, a senior spokesman for the group said Thursday.

The offer follows this week’s official opening of a Taliban political office in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar.

The only known American soldier held captive from the Afghan war is U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho. He disappeared from his base in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan.

In an exclusive telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Doha office, Taliban spokesman Shaheen Suhail said on Thursday that Bergdahl “is, as far as I know, in good condition.”

Suhail did not elaborate on Bergdahl’s current whereabouts. Among the five prisoners the Taliban have consistently requested are Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mullah Mohammed Fazl, a former top Taliban military commander, both of whom have been held for more than a decade. Read more from this story HERE.

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Rep. Gohmert claimed today that Obama is “sucking up to the Taliban.” What this means to the prisoner swap remains to be seen:

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Taliban ‘Embassy’ is a Surrender by Obama

By Joel B. Pollack. The decision by the Taliban to hoist their own “Islamic Emirate” flag above what was supposed to be just a “political office” in Doha, Qatar is more than just an embarrassment for President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and more than a stumbling block in negotiations over U.S. withdrawal from the country. Rather, the provocative gesture unmasks that withdrawal for what it is: a surrender, and a betrayal of the war against terror.

As the smoke rose from Ground Zero, the U.S. and NATO made clear that unless the Taliban regime handed over Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, it would be removed. The Taliban, perhaps believing that the U.S. did not have the stomach for a fight, refused. And so they paid the price. Theirs was not to be a temporary removal, but a deterrent against any other regimes that would dare to host or assist anti-American terrorist groups.

The Taliban, along with Al Qaeda, were routed. But they sheltered in the border regions of Pakistan, regrouped and launched an insurgency against the new government of Afghanistan, NATO, and the United Nations. Then-Sen. Barack Obama blamed the Bush administration for expending military resources on Iraq that could have been used in Afghanistan and pledged that, as president, he would do the opposite. Read more from this story HERE.

Jay Leno Scores Big with Joke: Forget Gitmo — Close the IRS

Photo Credit: AP

The audience at a taping of NBC’s “The Tonight Show” erupted in cheers and applause earlier this week when host Jay Leno joked about the need to close the Internal Revenue Service…

His exact words: “President Obama says he’s renewing his efforts to close Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo Bay? How about closing the IRS? Why don’t we do that?”

Loud applause broke out, and then Mr. Leno continued: “How about shipping the IRS to Guantanamo Bay? That’s what we — yes. That’s how you do it.”

Read more from this story HERE.