U.S. to Release bin Laden’s Bodyguard from Gitmo

While leftist human rights groups and the famously liberal mainstream media rejoice that the Obama Administration is releasing 55 Guantanamo terrorists, none has mentioned that among them is Osama bin Laden’s personal bodyguard.

That’s right; the president is freeing the al-Qaeda operative, Idris Ahmad Abdu Qadir Idris, who once protected the world’s most famous Islamic terrorist. The administration announced the list late last week and most of the media coverage has focused on the overdue release of the most benign captives. One mainstream newspaper mentioned the Chinese Muslims of the Uighur minority who rebelled against the Beijing leadership and never represented a threat to the U.S. or other western countries.

Another news article focused on a Saudi national who was cleared long ago by the Bush Administration but fears repatriation. It also tells the story of several Yemenis and Syrians who haven’t been repatriated because their countries are rocked by unrest and Tunisians who fear persecution if returned to the dictatorship in their homelands.

News report after news report tells the same sob story except for a conservative publication that points out bin Laden’s body guard is among those approved to leave the military prison in southeastern Cuba. Idris Ahmad Abdu Qadir Idris provided security for bin Laden before and after the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and the Pentagon, the story says. Yet, President Obama plans to release him from the high-security detention center.  If it’s any consolation, inclusion on the list does not mean that the United States has absolved them of any wrongdoing or that it believes they pose no threat.

Check out a 2008 Department of Defense (DOD) report on the body guard, who is labeled a high-risk detainee. Besides identifying him as bin Laden’s security guy, it reveals that Idris Ahmad Abdu Qadir Idris is an al-Qaeda recruiter associated with a Salafist network in Yemen. Detainee transited through multiple extremist support guesthouses, received militant training at the al-Faruq Training Camp in Afghanistan and is assessed to have received advanced training, the DOD report says.

A number of Guantanamo detainees who have been released over the years have rejoined terrorist missions after leaving the military prison, according to a variety of intelligence and Pentagon reports. A few years ago President Obama’s National Intelligence Director confirmed that one in four resume terrorist activities against the United States after being released. Previous to that the Pentagon reported a sharp rise in the number of detainees who rejoined terrorist missions after leaving Guantanamo.   

But clearing out the prison is part of Obama’s goal to return America to the “moral high ground.” Remember that one of his biggest promises during the 2008 presidential campaign was to close Guantanamo. The president has also caved into terrorists in other ways. Last year he released a Hezbollah militant, Ali Mussa Daqduq, in U.S. military custody for murdering five American soldiers in Iraq. Obama turned him over to Iraq out of respect for the country’s sovereignty and last month an Iraqi court absolved him.