Released Guantanamo Detainee Became Suicide Bomber

Guantanamo/Detainees

Released Guantanamo Detainee Became Suicide Bomber

Posted May 8, 2008, 08:57 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A Kuwaiti detainee released from Guantanamo Bay became a suicide bomber in one of three suicide attacks last month in the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to the U.S. military.

Officials identified the man as Abdullah Salim Ali al-Ajmi, released in 2005 after spending three years at Guantanamo, the New York Times reports.

Al-Ajmi returned to Kuwait and entered Iraq through Syria. Military spokesman Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon said he is one of several Guantanamo detainees who apparently returned to life as a combatant. A Kuwaiti court released al-Ajmi after acquitting him on charges he supported al-Qaida, the Associated Press reports.

Al-Ajmi's American lawyer, Thomas Wilner, told AP his client may have become “radicalized” because of his incarceration at Guantanamo. The military says al-Ajmi was an enemy combatant when he was captured in Afghanistan and he had a history of discipline problems at Guantanamo.

Wilner said al-Ajmi appeared at one meeting with a broken arm, an injury the detainee attributed to rough treatment by guards who tried to stop him from praying. "I don't know whether the experience of being kept down there in isolation radicalized him," Wilner said.

Wilner, a partner at Shearman & Sterling, told the Times in a story published yesterday that he has been warned to be careful about his electronic communications. Several lawyers assert they fear their phone calls are being monitored by the government.

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Posted by LR - 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 15 hours, 33 minutes ago

I’m sure that some will use this story as a reason to justify holding people at Guantanamo. However, rhe story proves the opposite. This person was released because the U.S. government was sure he was not a danger to us. As it turns out, if they didn’t hate America before they were sent to Guantanamo , they certainly hate it after spending years of incarceration and interrogation there.
Posted by Nice quote job - 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 15 hours ago

LR - go hug a tree. AP, nice hack job on the lawyer’s quote. Not that I’ am one for defending lawyers, but what he said was “I don’t know whether the experience of being kept down there in isolation radicalized him.”
You can infer that this is probably in response to a question similar to “was your client radicalized while at Guantanamo Bay?” The AP, which is of course completely unbiased, turned his I don’t know answer into this: “Thomas Wilner, told AP his client may have become “radicalized” because of his incarceration at Guantanamo.” They even have the audacity to use the actual quote in the next paragraph. I guess they assume readers are too dumb to read between the lines. Superb.
Posted by MSG - 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 14 hours, 47 minutes ago

It is so typical of a liberal to make that comment. Always blaming the US Gov’t for “creating” the terrorist or terrorism in the first place. Is the US responsible for creating criminals too and for them not reforming themselves and recommitting crimes when they get out of prison too?! It was only under political pressure by liberal organizations that the US Gov’t let any of those terrorists out. They are terrorists who want to kill us and it is liberals like you who they hate the most and you are first on their list!
Posted by NG - 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 13 hours, 56 minutes ago

MSG is obviously correct. To protect America, evey person who ever fought against America must be imprisoned for life. That includes every war since WWII. Now we need a bigger prison to hold them. Or we could just nuke them, like we did in Japan. Elect McCain, let the nukes begin!
Posted by PN - 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 12 hours, 57 minutes ago

I don’t think we could build bigger prisons. That might require a tax increase—you know “Read my lips!” But we do have nukes.

I disagree, however, about limiting the imprisonment to those who fought against America. Why not continue the internment camp tradition of WWII. We could put all people of German ancestry, Japanese ancestry, Cuban ancestry (Castro, you know), Iraq ancestry, Iran ancestry, etc. into prisons.
Posted by Supremacy Claus - 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 10 hours ago

Thank a lawyer for his release. Now many are dead. Then his lawyer blames his incarceration. He cannot face the fact that the lawyer foresaw the deaths of the victims of this client.
Posted by msg - 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 9 hours, 37 minutes ago

Obviously most of you failed your world history courses or you would see the obvious differences between WW1 and WW11 and the war against terrorism. There is no comparison and to make one is an insult to all veterans of both wars, on all sides!
Posted by LR - 2 months, 1 week, 3 days, 10 hours, 12 minutes ago

MSG,
It’s so typical of a conservative to get totally bent out of shape if any one event doesn’t fit his rigid worldview and then start to generalize like crazy.:-)
No, I do not blame the U.S for creating terrorism. There are plenty of groups out there who are looking to harm us for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with anything we did wrong (or did right for that matter).
However, a number of the Guantanamo detainees were not caught on the battlefield but were brought in by bounty hunters or were singled out by a warlord whose bad side they got on. Some of these detainees were surely terrorsts and should be detained, but some were not. If you take someone who is not a terrorist, drag them half way accross the world, lock them up, treat them roughly, give them no hope of freedom for a long time, and eventually find that they’re not a danger and then release them, guess what, they’re going to be angry against the people who mistreated them.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t detain some people, but this administration has been so clumsy about it that it’s an embarrassment. It’s actually hurt our cause. Worst of all, they’re incapable of admitting when they’ve made a mistake, and so they won’t correct thei r errors.

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