What a joyous, encouraging time for Al Qaeda and, indeed, for virulent anti-American jihadists around the globe. President Barack Obama has decreed that Guantanamo must be closed, and you know what that means: Hundreds of the world's most dangerous terrorists soon to be freed to rejoin Al Qaeda and kill again!
Not that that would ever happen, of course.
BEIRUT - The emergence of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order that President Barack Obama signed yesterday that the detention center be shut down within a year.
The militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the US Embassy in Yemen's capital, Sana, in September. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen.
One little quibble with the news blurb. The discovery that a "rehabilitated" GITMO detainee has returned to a leadership position in Al Qaeda has not just "underscored the potential complications" of Obama's plan. It has shown why the entire crux of Obama's plan is dangerous and doomed to fail. Obama's "plan" presupposes and indeed mandates that Guantanamo will be closed within one year and, unless it is all a sham that will merely result in relocation of Guantanamo, makes no provision for continuing to detain dangerous enemy combatants who continue to threaten America's national security.
Already Obama has signaled encouragement to Palestinians who threaten Israel's survival by making his first call to any foreign leader to a Palestinian; he has begun the process of re-staffing Al Qaeda's malevolent leadership; and he has announced that America will shortly leave Iraq's fledgling democracy to fend for itself against Iran, Syria, Al Qaeda, and all the rest, like it or not.
Let me ask you this, America: Are you safer today than you were three days ago?
Maybe you still feel safe when you tuck your kids in at night. I still do. Thank you, President Bush, and all who have worked under his leadership to keep America safe. But I'm not finding it reassuring that one of Obama's first acts as president is to set a date certain for an Al Qaeda's next Super Reunion.
Mark your calendars, detainees and Al Qaeda leadership, for the Rockin' Jihad 2010 Ex-GITMO Reunion and Death-to-America Planning Retreat! It will be explosive!
We will be discussing the closing of Gitmo on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com at 5 PM New York time today.
Please go to www.garybaumgarten.com and click on the Enter Chat Room button to join in the conversation.
Thanks.
Gary
Posted by: Gary Baumgarten | January 23, 2009 at 07:59 AM