Officials: New Taliban chief was once at Gitmo

[The Hope Mobile]

Source: AP

Officials: New Taliban chief was once at Gitmo
Operation officer was released to the Afghan government in 2007

WASHINGTON - 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.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29622714/

---

Seems like this ties in with Larissa Alexandrovna's thoughts on being spoon fed baloney by the MSM.

[LynnTheDem]

1. WHO freed him??? Oh that's right, the GEORGE W. bUSH regime.

REPUBLICAN.

[Bread and Circus]

2. Sweet, now they can legally kill him with a drone missile...when you get lemons...

you gotta make lemonade.

I jest.

But seriously though, when they are released like that and go back to the family business, they do become a killable target.

[The Hope Mobile]

Larissa was trying to make the point that the timing of all these

news releases about how truly evil these Gitmo guys are/were just proves that it is an important and worthwhile facility which should remain open. The message seems to be that we shouldn't just release these guys. Hmmmm. I just found this coincidental.

[Bread and Circus]

9. I'm with you on that. I was just being flip and it does seem very suspicious

that all of sudden we have the "gang of five" and now this guy.

[The Hope Mobile]

12. Right! Its all a little too convenient . . . nt

[Politicalboi]

13. Yes me too

Be afraid be very afraid. If we let these innocent men out they will come back and kill us all. We better just kill them now. :sarcasm:

[The Hope Mobile]

14. Right - and besides, this just proves that all that torture was totally justifiable.

Obama should've listened to us . . . we told him we knew things he didn't. It would definitely be irresponsible to let these people out where they can do more damage (and tell stories).

[Generator]

22. Or maybe the Bush admin purposely let go

the actual bad guys. Keeping and torturing the innocents for fun. But the bad guys could always cook up another 9/11-conveniently on Obama's watch now-and then what would Obama do? It would be the excuse for more pentagon spending, more war, more of the same old same old.

I'm so cynical I can't keep up.

[MrPerson]

3. Anonymous sources - HORSESHIT ALERT

The officials, who spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to release the information.

Because its NOT TRUE.

[The Hope Mobile]

4. Definitely find that very plausible.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. And even if it is true

I wouldn't expect a former Gitmo prisoner to be favorably disposed toward the U.S.

[The Hope Mobile]

11. Exaaaaaaaactly!

Hmmmmmmmmmm. They tortured the crap out of him and then he went home and decided that Americans are just plain good folks!!!! Makes perfect sense to me.:shrug:

[hugo_from_TN]

24. Or there is the possibility that he was Taliban before and went back to the same.

[Mind_your_head]

5. Wha??? Did the Taliban send out a press release or sumthing?

sounds ridiculously contrived to me, but what do *I* know.

Peace,
M_Y_H

[MrPerson]

7. Bush moles that are trying to fuck things up.

[givemebackmycountry]

6. Wait! Wait! 'member George W. Bush kept us SAFE!!!

'member? 'member?

George W. Bush would NEVER let a terrorist free so he could become the new top operations officer in southern Afghanistan.

The dates must be wrong.
It's not 2007 it's 2009 and Obama did it!
'member George W. Bush kept us SAFE!!!

:sarcasm:

God, we'll be hearing shit like this for years to come.

[The Hope Mobile]

10. Yep - Just ask Ann Coulter

Obama just wishes he could do as good a job as Bush defendin' Murrikkkka.:crazy:

[grantcart]

15. well at least he got an advanced degree

[aquart]

16. Then I can see why he'd be a bit testy.

Although it clearly looked great on his resume.

[JJ]

17. "Source: AP"

Lately, I find Fox News more credible.

[sabra]

18. CBS News: "revenge and what he had seen in Guantanamo Bay brought him back to the resistance"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/11/terror/main4858231.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

<snip>

U.S. authorities handed over Rasoul to the Afghan government, which in turn released him, according to Pentagon and CIA officials.

"Mullah Zakir was freed from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 and after being with his family and kids for a few months, revenge and what he had seen in Guantanamo Bay brought him back to the resistance," a senior Taliban commander told CBS News' Sami Yousafzai.

The commander, who spoke to Yousafzai by phone from an undisclosed location and did not wish to be identified, added that Rasoul “is not the only top Taliban leader whom rejoined the Taliban after being ill-treated by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay.

[Tempest]

20. So we could have rehabilitated him

Instead we turned him into a more determined fighter.

[ohio2007]

21. Saudi Arabia is willing to rehabilitate the "hardened" 250 head cases left

U.S. Arranging to Send Prisoners to Saudi Arabia
WASHINGTON -- Some of the roughly 100 Yemenis held at Guantanamo Bay would go to Saudi Arabia under a plan being discussed by U.S. and Saudi officials, said people briefed on the talks.

Yemenis make up the largest national grouping among the roughly 250 inmates still at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo U.S. officials believe addressing their fate is urgent if President Barack Obama is to make good on his commitment to close the prison by January 2010.





U.S. and Arab officials said Saudi authorities have developed a program for Islamist extremists that is largely viewed as a success by U.S. and European counterterrorism officials. The program includes vocational training, family reunification and religious tutoring.




Yemen and Saudi Arabia share a border and some of the same tribal families. Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is a Saudi national, but his family's ancestral home is in Yemen.

"It seems like the Saudis are willing to rehabilitate them," said the Arab official, noting Riyadh is concerned about the threat posed to Saudi Arabia by Yemen's security situation.

U.S. officials say Saudi Arabia's rehabilitation program isn't fail-safe. Last month, two Saudi nationals who were released from Guantanamo and passed through the program appeared in a video as senior members of al Qaeda's Yemen operations.





http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123690601302114439.html

You know if they catch these guys dealing drugs in the magic kingdom...they are permitted to chop off their melons in a public display of old fashioned justice.

:sarcasm:

I don't see why they refuse to show these fundies on court TV. I think their rants would be rather entertaining and offer an unexpected off color humor.

[timtom]

19. Of course, if we weren't IN Afghanistan...

This would be a non-issue.

Regardless of how heinous we westerners view the Taliban, they are of no concern to the U.S. (unless we are in their country).

America is just pissed off at them because they 1)demanded evidence that bin Laden did 9-11, 2)had ceased the poppy industry, 3)wouldn't let us pipe oil across their property.

[mbperrin]

23. DAMN YOU with all these FACTS!!!!

Not at all fair to tell the truth in this kind of situation....



:sarcasm: