Obama & Guantanamo.
From 9-11Families.org:
Friday, Debra Burlingame was among the 40 family members of the 2,975 murdered on September 11 and the 17 sailors murdered aboard the USS Cole who met with President Obama. During the meeting, President Obama was wrong on the law, wrong about what Boumediene v. Bush afforded the detainees held at Guantanamo, and stated the public’s perception about Guantanamo is confused with Abu Ghraib. … There is more.
She spoke with talk-radio host Steve Malzberg this afternoon about the meeting; here is the audio.
Mrs. Burlingame is the sister of Charles “Chic” Burlingame, the pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which hijackers flew into the Pentagon.
And speaking of Guantanamo and our misguided friends on the Left, Yemen announced today that it was going to release 170 al Qaeda suspects. This is relevant considering that of the 200 or so remaining detainees at Guantanamo about half are Yemeni. The Obama administration may release these last 100 to Yemen, which will, no doubt apply their useless catch and release policy towards them. One of the stipulations for release is that Yemen institute a “rehabilitation school” — similar to Saudi Arabia’s — which detainees will have to attend to (somehow) prove they are no longer dangerous prior to earning back their freedom.
The punchline is this Saudi rehabilitation model has already proven to be a joke. The Kingdom recently published a list of its 85 most-wanted jihadis, which included 11 former Guantanamo detainees and rehabilitation graduates.
(LWJ adds that of these 11 my include Abdullah al Qarawi, who for three years has reportedly operated a large al Qaeda cell inside Iran, presumably with Iranian knowledge considering their security services would have to be aware. But that’s another story).
To date, the Pentagon has positively identified more than 60 former Guantanamo detainees — including al Qaeda high commander Said al-Shihri — who have returned to committing acts of terrorism.
Should one of the men that the administration releases end up killing more Americans, President Obama may have a more difficult time the next time he meets with the families of terrorism victims.