Guest Editorial
By Capt. Joseph R. JohN | March 16, 2016
Congressman Duncan Hunter, Maj-USMCR: Obama Gitmo policy may be forcing U.S. Military to release newly captured terrorists on the battlefield
An endorsed Combat Veteran For Congress, Congressman Duncan D. Hunter, Maj-USMCR (R-CA-52) is opposing the transfer of the most dangerous Al Q’ieda Terrorists incarcerated at the U.S. Naval Detention Facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GITMO) to foreign countries and to U.S. prisons on United States soil. There is a much more sinister reason why the occupant in the Oval Office has been transferring hundreds of Radical Islamic Terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, for the last 7 years; Obama has been ignoring the fact 30 percent of released terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility have resumed terrorist activities and/or have returned to the battlefield to kill U.S. Military personnel. Even though the Al Q’ieda and Taliban Terrorists that Obama has been releasing from GITMO are killing and maiming more American military personnel on the battlefield, Obama has been ignoring those facts, because his ultimate goal is to transfer the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay to Castro’s Communist Cuba, regardless of what is required.
Obama promised to shut down US Naval Detention Facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba when he took office, and for 7 years he has blocked captured terrorist suspects from being sent to the U.S. Naval Detention Facility in Cuba. This, coupled with the U.S. Armed Forces closure of the U.S. Military Detention Facility near the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, raises questions about the U.S. Armed Forces’ ability to detain suspected Taliban Terrorists captured on the battlefield, under the Authorization for Use of Military Force. Congressman Hunter inquired of Secretary of Defense Carter how captured Taliban Terrorist are being ultimately dealt with. Under Obama administration policies, those Taliban Terrorist captured on the battle field (in Afghanistan) are now being transferred to foreign custody.(Washington Free Beacon, 2/22/16).
Congressman Hunter wrote to Secretary of Defense Carter on January 28, and stated in his correspondence: “Given the clear position of Congress on the proposed closure of Guantanamo Bay and the prohibition on detainee transfers to domestic facilities, I am concerned that the Department of Defense is being forced to relinquish control of dangerous individuals captured by U.S. Forces (in Afghanistan) due to the president’s refusal to utilize Guantanamo Bay for new detention cases.” Congressman Hunter went on to state in his correspondence, “Once in foreign custody, an individual’s release can occur despite the best efforts of the U.S. to keep that individual in custody,”
Congressman Hunter continued. “An already high-rate of recidivism adds to the probability that some individuals will subsequently reengage U.S. forces on the battlefield or resume terrorist activity. This puts American lives at risk.” Joe Kasper, Congressman Hunter’s Chief of Staff, told the Free Beacon that Obama’s detainee policy can only lead the American public to assume that “many of the people our operators pick up (in Afghanistan) are turned over and released, in some cases immediately.”
Two years after Iran’s terrorist front group, Hezbollah, established a terrorist training camp in Castro’s Communist Cuba, and had been regularly exporting Radical Islamic Terrorism to South America and to the United States, Obama told another of his many lies. He certified to Congress, as required by U.S. Federal Law, that he could remove Cuba from the U.S. list of nations that sponsor terrorism, when he knew full well that Communist Cuba was allowing Hezbollah to train terrorists on Cuban soil, and had been exporting terrorism throughout the Western Hemisphere. Obama then followed the first big lie, with another bigger lie, when he told the American people he could safely establish diplomatic relations with Communist Cuba, something 10 US Presidents refused to do for 55 years, because Castro’s Communist Cuba never ceased exporting terrorism and Communism throughout North and South America.
Communist Cuba continues to work very closely with Hezbollah, Iran, and Radical Islamic Terrorists to destabilize the United States. Yet, Obama just established round trip airline traffic between the U.S. and Cuba, making it very easy for Muslim Refugees sympathetic to ISIS to fly to Cuba, complete their terrorist training in Hezbollah Terrorist Training Camps, then return to the United States to attack Americans. The FBI informed Congress that 250+ newly admitted Muslim Refugees who were admitted as U.S. citizens through Obama’s fast track refugee citizenship program, have flown to the Middle East and Africa to train with ISIS and participate in the genocide of Syrian and Assyrian Christians.
Obama has been trying to get Congress to approve the transfer of the highest risk Al Q’ieda Terrorists killers, that no country in world will accept, to U.S. prisons, so he can close the US Naval Detention Facility in Guantanamo, Cuba. Recently, the Joint Chiefs of Staff informed Congress that U.S. Federal Law prevents the U.S. Armed Forces from transferring Al Q’ieda and Taliban Terrorists detainees in Gitmo to the United States. If the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay is transferred to Castro’s Communist Cuba, most probably the Hezbollah terrorist training camp would be moved to the U.S. Naval Base, in order to improve and expand their training capacity for Radical Islamic Terrorists.
In the last 7 years, despite the fact thousands of Radical Islamic Terrorist have been captured in combat by US Military personnel in Afghanistan, often at the loss of life of US military personnel, none of those prisoners have ever been transferred to GITMO for interrogation, preventing the US military from having the required extended time required to extract valuable military intelligence from the Taliban Terrorists, most of those captured terrorists have been released from the Detention Facilities in Afghanistan to go right back to the battlefield to engage and kill American military personnel. In every military conflict over the 240 year history of the Republic, US military personnel have employed night time patrols, in order to capture high value enemy leaders, so they could extract high value current intelligence during interrogations. Instead of capturing high value Al Q’ieda and Taliban Terrorists leaders for interrogation, Obama, has been having those terrorist leaders killed with drone strikes for 7 years---removing the ability of US Combat Forces from obtaining current and future battlefield intelligence, that policy for the last 7 years has ensured that high value terrorists will never be incarcerated in the Detention Facility in Guantanamo Bay Cuba.
Releasing prisoners on the battlefield to return to combat, when taken together with Obama’s public pronouncement that a certain number of combat personnel will be removed on specific dates certain, and by forcing dangerous Rules of Engagement (ROE) upon combat personnel for the last 7 years, U.S. military personnel going into “Harm’s Way” in Afghanistan have been operating with their hands tied behind their backs. The new and dangerous ROE have increased the number of US military personnel Killed In Action (KIA) by 458 percent/year and those Wounded In Action (WIA) increased by 378 percent/year. Obama policies in Afghanistan have effectively ensured that there will be no victory against the Taliban, Al Q’ieda, and Iranian Quid’s Force who have been providing IUDs to the Taliban, in order to kill and maim U.S. military personnel.
The following link will provide details of how the percentage of KIA and WIA were calculated from raw data. http://combatveteransforcongress.org/story/new-dangerous-obama-roe-increased-kias-458year-and-wounded-378year
Please the article on Congressman Duncan D Hunter,'s Maj-USMCR (R-CA-52) concern about the closure of GITMO and the release of newly captured Taliban Terrorists enemy combatants on the battlefield, allowing them to return combat to kill US military personnel. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/obama-gitmo-policy-may-force-pentagon-to-release-newly-captured-terrorists/
Joseph R. John, USNA ‘62
Capt. USN(Ret)
Chairman, Combat Veterans For Congress PAC
2307 Fenton Parkway, Suite 107-184
San Diego, CA 92108
http://www.CombatVeteransForCongress.org
