In case you weren’t already convinced that closing Guantanomo Bay was a bad idea, here’s a frightening story that might seal the deal. Ibrahim al Qosi was an inmate at Gitmo from 2002-2012. An accountant, Qosi had worked closely with Osama Bin Laden in the early 1990s, overlooking his business in Khartoum. He also drove for bin Laden and worked at al-Qaida’s Star of Jihad compound in Jalalabad. When Qosi plead guilty to conspiracy and aiding in terrorism in 2010, he was granted release from Gitmo two years later and returned to his home country of Sudan.
This terror-related prisoner we let go free has now been identified in a recent online video posted by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to Long War Journal.
On the AQAP tape, Qosi speaks of a global expansion of jihad. His statements are in Arabic, but The Miami Herald found a translator:
“As the U.S. has waged war on us remotely as a solution to minimize its casualties, we have fought it remotely, as well by individual jihad,” he is heard saying. “And as the U.S. has killed our men, we have killed its people. But it is not the same. Our dead are in heaven and theirs are in the hellfire, and the war is not over yet.”
How comforting.
Instead of keeping Gitmo open and keeping terrorists or those with terrorist ties like Qosi behind bars – outside of our borders – the president intends to close the prison and transfer over 50 inmates to the United States. Several have already made the trip and as, Sen. Tim Scott notes, (R-SC), some of these dangerous criminals have been placed within minutes from local churches and schools.
At a time when public trust in government to fight terrorism is at a new low, you’d think the White House would reconsider its inane plan.