Obama is 'Letting Tigers Back into the Mountains'

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Freed detainee now an Al-Qaeda commander
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Washington - A released Guantanamo Bay terror detainee's re-emergence as an Al-Qaeda commander in Yemen highlights the difficulty US President Barack Obama faces in his efforts to close the detention facility.
A US counter-terror official confirmed last Friday that Said Ali al-Shihri, who was jailed at Guantanamo for six years after his capture in Pakistan, has resurfaced as a leader of a Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda.
'By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for, and were imprisoned for,' Al-Shihri said in a video posted on a militant-leaning website last Friday.
It was the second time last week that a reference to him was made on the website. He was first mentioned in an online magazine on Jan 19. The report said he was now the top deputy in 'Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula'.
The former detainee was released by the US in 2007 to the Saudi government for rehabilitation.
According to the Pentagon, at least 18 former Guantanamo detainees have 'returned to the fight' and 43 others are suspected of having resumed terrorist activities. AP

There are definitely dangers in letting the militants go. The question is whether there is a greater danger in not letting them go. While in Guantanamo,

• they would become figures of sympathy among those who do not share their cause - this means a withdrawal of support from otherwise friendly forces.
• they would also be projected as ongoing martyrs for the cause - which would attract more recruits to terrorist ranks
• they would attrack terrorist activity to get them freed
• form a dangerous precedent for detention without trial - just note how the ISA is used in Singapore and Malaysia to silenc dissent.

It was unwise to have started this semi-permanent place of detention in the first place but that cannot be undone now. It is now more prudent to end the detention under the present circumstances. They could be handed back to the theatres in which they were caught, and be subject to the prevailing laws there. They may actually find Guantanmo more pleasant.

The few who have been freed and then reverted to their old ways can be tracked down and eliminated.

makapaaa said:

According to the Pentagon, at least 18 former Guantanamo detainees have 'returned to the fight' and 43 others are suspected of having resumed terrorist activities. AP

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If Bush was allowed to have it all his way, he would have executed the whole damned lot of them and the world would be a better place for it.

The world without George Bush at the helm is going to be an increasingly dangerous place.

Bush was in power when those "dangerous people" were released!

He was in power until 1159 on Monday and when the guy who is suposedly the Saudi Al Qaeda leader was released!!!

Areopagus said:

Bush was in power when those "dangerous people" were released!

He was in power until 1159 on Monday and when the guy who is suposedly the Saudi Al Qaeda leader was released!!!

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Containing these servants of satans in disguise is not an easy tasks and Bush have succeded in containing this evils. Dealing with these evils is not easy, you cant just be a nice gentleman and ask them please tell the truth, these devils are tough, they wont speak unless tortured. For the sake of justice and peace, these devils must be tortured to speak so that the innocents can be saved.

But now that Bush, a man who can withstand unpopularity and a steadfast man, is no more sitting in the throne, the world has again become uncertain and a dangerous place to live in.

Leongsam said:

If Bush was allowed to have it all his way, he would have executed the whole damned lot of them and the world would be a better place for it.

The world without George Bush at the helm is going to be an increasingly dangerous place.

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Bush was bumbling at times, not too articulate, some say not too clever and that he favoured the rich. Always made fun of by comics and crticized by political analysts.
But I think that at least, his intentions were good, he did as he said and as he thought, and really tried to make the world a safer place by making the USA take the lead.