Saudi-born GITMO prisoner will get $1.5 million from U.K. government upon release
Written by Allen West on February 9, 2015
Here in the West, we are truly ignorant when it comes to understanding the modern 21st century battlefield — ok, not all of us, but a lot of folks — and particularly those in Washington D.C.
You don’t have to listen to me, just take a look at the response from Jordan — and now the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is back in the fight. They get it. We don’t, we are losing, and we must develop a strategy and not the drivel Susan Rice presented this past Friday at the Brookings Institute — this is not about self-spun alarmism. We don’t need hundreds of thousands of troops. We just need a focused strategy and commitment to defeat the enemy, not rhetoric.
There has been no document of capitulation, no terms of surrender. And President Obama’s unilateral statement to “end combat operations” means little to nothing. Therefore, no onus exists to repatriate these unlawful enemy combatants to continue conducting their heinous actions against the world. And to have heard some chucklehead last week blame GITMO orange uniforms on the actions of Islamic State was perhaps one of the most absurd statements I’ve recently heard — and between words from Obama and Susan Rice this past week, that’s saying a lot.
But this story from the U.K. Telegraph is yet another indicator we’re failing.
“The last British detainee to be released from Guantanamo is in line for a £1 million payment from the U.K. government – despite claims of his terror links to al-Qaida in official US documents.”
“Shaker Aamer has languished in Guantanamo for an astonishing 13 years, seven years longer than any other British citizen or resident. The campaign to ensure his release has been stepped up in recent months with David Cameron raising his plight on a trip to the White House in January. Barack Obama promised in return to “prioritize the case” and Aamer has been cleared for release.”
“Aamer, a Saudi Arabian citizen, had been living in London prior to travelling to Afghanistan with his family in 2001. He insists he went there to open a school and run a charity while the U.S. authorities have accused him of being a senior al-Qaida figure, who acted as a ‘special interpreter’ for Osama bin Laden, was trained in the handling of explosives, and with had alleged links to terror networks both in the U.K. and U.S.”
“When he is finally freed, Aamer will be entitled to a compensation payment of about £1 million. Similar sums were given to other British detainees of Guantanamo in a scheme agreed by the Government to head off what it believed would be costly and embarrassing court cases that would drag U.K. intelligence services into the dock.”
Ok, let me explain this in simple southern vernacular — the U.K. government is about to unload about $1.5 million to an Islamic terrorist so he won’t take them to court. Do you doggone understand how absolutely insane that sounds?
The Brits are about to compensate a terrorist? And who says Islamic terrorism doesn’t pay? We’ve reported here about the billions of dollars given to Hamas to “rebuild” schools and infrastructure in Gaza — and this was after the most recent combat operations between Israel and the Islamic terrorist organization where countless underground tunnels were uncovered, the result of prior funding for “infrastructure” to Gaza.
If I were a British taxpayer I’d be absolutely livid. So let me understand, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is lobbying our Senate against restoring sanctions against Iran. But he’s advocating for the release of an unlawful enemy combatant, an Islamic terrorist, so he can write this cheeky fella a million pound check?
What message does that send to these Islamists? And Prime Minister Cameron, when I read this, I just about choked on my grits. You’ve gotta be kidding right?
Let me remind you all about Islamic charities, like the Holy Land Foundation — look it up and what they were doing here in America.
The Mail says, “The compensation settlements were announced by Kenneth Clarke, then Justice Secretary, in November 2010. The details have been kept confidential but the payouts are widely accepted to have amounted to £1 million for each detainee, including U.K. residents as well as those with British citizenship. The Foreign Office refused last week to discuss any possible payout to Aamer, but the legal precedent set five years ago will make it impossible to resist any claim he makes. His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said: “He hasn’t got any money and he can’t do anything while he is locked up.”
So are we going to release Aamer so he can get his payday?
“Robin Simcox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, a neoconservative think tank, and author of Islamist Terrorism: The British Connections, said: “The Government agreed a settlement with the Guantánamo detainees because it feared a lengthy litigation process could reveal secret intelligence and damage national security. “Yet – as the Aamer case shows – the consequences of the Government choosing not to fight its corner and simply cutting a deal are hugely damaging. It should be a source of great embarrassment to the Government that Aamer will earn more for his time in Afghanistan than any British soldier ever did.”
Mr Simcox further stated: “The U.S. government has clearly had a multitude of good reasons to detain Shaker Aamer. His connections to al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and other jihadists are well established, and the charities that Aamer said he worked for are known to be al-Qaida support groups. “Aamer’s formidable reputation among the other detainees at Guantanamo Bay shows that he remains highly influential. There is far more to Aamer than the benign image his supporters portray.”
So once again, we will release someone who will become a role model and a leader in the Islamic jihadist movement in the U.K. Furthermore, he’ll be rather viable financially — and you can bet he’ll also apply for more government benefits – I doubt he’ll be seeking out employment.
We are restocking the enemy’s leadership while the enemy is still fighting us. We are basically putting the sharks back in our swimming pool while we’re going for a swim — and their ravenous hunger has not subsided, only increased.
This is why we need leadership, in America and across the world. We are losing the war of wills against these Islamists. We are allowing ourselves to be led by a cabal of Islamapologists who see us as having committed wrong — even if it was 900 years ago, as Obama articulated in his insidious National Prayer Breakfast remarks.
So not only do we want to “free” Islamic terrorists, we also want to compensate them — for fear of lawsuits where our intelligence practices and processes may be compromised — why?
We are fighting against non-state, non-uniform belligerents who are not “prisoners of war,” they are unlawful enemy combatants. They possess no rights and we must stop treating this conflagration as some law enforcement endeavor. Who truly believes these Islamic terrorists deserve a “day in court?” We don’t have any responsibility to present a “legal case” with evidence against them. They were captured on the battlefield, which they established conducting terrorists activities. And as long as Islamic terrorists continue to wage “jihad,” then we should keep them off the battlefield.
And please, don’t tell me I’m a warmonger and we cannot exist in a state of perpetual war. Guess what? Islamists see a clear delineation of Dar-al-Islam (them) and Dar-al-Harb (everyone else – which by the way translates to “house of war” — so get over it and accept the reality of the Islamo-fascist, jihadist enemy.
No, I don’t support “nation-building” but as long as the Islamic terrorists want to fight us, then I do support crushing them.
I just want to echo the words of junior Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark) last week from a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on GITMO:
“In my opinion, the only problem with Guantanamo Bay is there are too many empty beds and cells there right now. We should be sending more terrorists there for further interrogation to keep this country safe. As far as I’m concerned, every last one of them can rot in hell. But as long as they don’t do that, they can rot in Guantanamo Bay.”
Spot on Senator Cotton, and I’m glad we supported you with the Guardian Fund because we need more veterans of the recent battlefield on the Capitol Hill battlefield.
I recommend Sen. Cotton speak with President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron and bring an air pump for the deflated balls they’re using to play this game against Islamic terrorism and jihadism. Maybe then they’d be able to define
http://allenbwest.com/2015/02/saudi-born-gitmo-prisoner-will-get-1-5-million-u-k-government-upon-release/
