Research

Over the weekend, we noted that President Obama and Senate Democrats were In A Reckless Rush to push through their government-run health care experiment.  Now it appears Obama is in another “reckless rush” to fulfill his ill-conceived campaign pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, regardless of the national security consequences. Jake Tapper reports that the Obama administration has agreed to transfer six Gitmo detainees to Yemen and two Somali detainees to the Somaliland region.  

While the President may celebrate these transfers, there is some information the White House is yet to divulge.  First, America’s top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen noted yesterday that Yemen is quickly becoming “another safe heaven” for terrorism, and The Wall Street Journal notes that once “the detainees are in Yemen their treatment will be impossible to control.”  The editorial further explains:

Several former Gitmo detainees from other countries have moved to Yemen to rejoin the global jihad, and one of them, Said Ali al-Shihri, turned up in a January video as al Qaeda's No. 2 man on the Arabian peninsula. Adding to al-Shirhi's potential recruitment pool seems a high price to pay for the alleged ‘global good will’ for closing Guantanamo.

This is a sign of a disturbing emerging trend. When President Obama transferred two Gitmo detainees to the Somaliland region, he failed to mention that Somalia is considered a haven for international terrorists, or the fact that the United States does not recognize the government of Somaliland– but no matter.  Perhaps the biggest surprise: shortly after arriving in Somalia, the prisoners were released. 

The idea that we could possibly provide terrorist organizations with fresh recruits speaks to the misinformed nature of President Obama’s decision to close the Guantanamo Bay. Instead of continuing to make similar mistakes and putting our national security at greater risk by releasing prisoners abroad, the President should put politics aside, slow down and rethink this misguided ploy.