Gitmo veteran now steering Europe's youths away from jihad

Gitmo veteran now steering Europe's youths away from jihad

Gitmo veteran now steering Europe's youths away from jihad

Found this tucked away in the KCTV 5 news, and article from the AP.

PARIS (AP) - He learned warfare in an al-Qaida training camp, did time at Guantanamo and more time in a French prison. With such a resume, Mourad Benchellali may seem an unlikely youth counsellor - but he is telling his story to young Europeans, warning them against the lure of jihad.

The 33-year-old Frenchman is one of a small number of Europeans presenting their jihadi past as an example for others not to follow. Many see men like him as a powerful tool to deter youth from heading to Syria - while Western governments are wary of them.

Benchellali meets with young audiences at least once a week in France, Belgium and Switzerland to persuade them of the folly of flying off to join the Islamic State or other groups waging holy war in Syria and Iraq.



Read more: www.kctv5.com...

This is the guy who 3 years ago went to court and won for mistreatment/torture. That prompted the investigation of Gitmo.

In April, the US general in charge at the time is summoned.

Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the notorious prison from 2002 until 2004, was summoned by an appeals court judge in litigation brought by Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchellali.

The two men have alleged that Miller systemically carried out “torture and ill-treatment on persons deprived of their freedom without any charge and without the basic rights of any detainee,” according to Agence France Presse.

The two men were detained in 2001 by US forces in Afghanistan and shipped to the now-infamous US facility. Sassi was released and returned to France in 2004; Benchellali, in 2005.

So yeah. All of that happened.

When Miller retired from the military in 2006, however, a civilian defense lawyer named Harvey Volzer told The Washington Post that the ex-Gitmo chief “has become a scapegoat for abusive policies developed at a higher level.”

Yeah, a scapegoat, eh?

Last year, Sassi and Benchellali first filed their complaint, but Parisian judges had refused then to compel Miller to appear in court, according to the French-language Swiss daily, Le Matin.

Bourdon also said that Gen. Miller “is identified in all international and American investigations as being at the heart of the torture system,” according to the Lausanne-based newspaper.

“It’s unthinkable that explanations have not been demanded of him. If he refuses to come, there will be consequences,” he added.

I could NOT agree more that it is unthinkable.

Now, that same Benchellali guy has a crisis hotline thing set up for youths who are thinking about joining jihad in the ME.
He speaks to youths in groups as well, and he is very active in doing this. He wants to discourage them from idealizing it; he aims to tell them all the reasons not to, and how it really was.

I think that's fantastic, but the set of circumstances and series of events was horrible from the outset. And it sickens me the number of lives ruined and lost, the appalling barbarity of war, and this Near Mad Max kind of stuff going on.
By all means that general needs to be held accountable.

That this former prisoner is now actively working with youths is a good outcome....but at what cost? And how long until this takes hold and we can stop the madness - starting with our kids.

There are people who don't trust that he's legit, too.
I have to wonder if he's being paid to do this also, and somehow indoctrinating them - but, my first impulse was to believe he is sincere.
It's so sad that no one trusts anybody.

What do we think, that our kids don't pay attention? Kids are exquisitely adept at learning from live-action role modeling ADULTS. They see what is going on, it's not like before the internet, where kids could be 'sheltered' as to the media. When I was growing up, I knew very little about foreign affairs - nowadays, kids are bombarded with this stuff. And it did get worse after 9/11.


sigh. ANyway - I didn't see anything in search about the connection or facts. If it's been posted in one or more threads, please give me the links to them.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

S&F


Thanks for the info Buzzy !

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I saw a reference to John Horgan, so I looked him up.
Horgan-John

Though I am interested in virtually every aspect of terrorism, the main focus of my research is on the psychology of terrorist behavior. I am interested in how people become involved, remain involved, and disengage from terrorist movements. I study these issues across a wide variety of different non-state groups, and I examine these processes from the perspective of the individual militant as well as how the terrorist group and organization manages the processes of recruitment, selection, and disengagement

Disengagement seems to be the thrust of the news article.

Yeah, a scapegoat, eh?

So do you think W. Bush, D.Cheney and other high level characters should continue to not be held to account?
Dick_Cheney

Cheney was selected to be the Secretary of Defense during the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, holding the position for the majority of Bush's term from 1989 to 1993. During his time in the Department of Defense, Cheney oversaw the 1991 Operation Desert Storm, among other actions.
. . .
During Cheney's tenure as Vice President, he played a lead behind-the-scenes role in Bush Administration's response to the September 11 attacks and coordination of the Global War on Terrorism. He was an early proponent of the Iraq War and defender of the Administration's record on terrorism. ... Cheney was often criticized for the Bush Administration's policies regarding the War on Terror, NSA Wiretapping and so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques."

It worked apparently...
AS intended and WHO CARES about torturing terrorists?
I would rather just KILL Jihadis instead of catching them, only to be released, myself.
Jihadis that try to come to America (The land where films like "SAW" are popular)better PRAY civilians don't catch them if water boarding is considered scary.
We use THAT in training our aircrews.

a reply to: pthena

So do you think W. Bush, D.Cheney and other high level characters should continue to not be held to account?

NO! And that's part of my point.

Have you read Jeremy Scahill's "Dirty Wars"? Or his "Blackwater"?
Those books have PROVEN to me that Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, et al, BELONG IN PRISON. And should ABSOLUTELY be tried for war crimes - it is beyond me how they have remained inured....

much like the mega-banksters (a la Jamie Dimon. etc) are NOT IN PRISON.

I don't get it at all.
Like I said, I don't trust ANYONE who is in any position of power to be honest.
They ALL SUCK.

a reply to: cavtrooper7

It worked apparently...
AS intended

What apparently worked as intended?

and WHO CARES about torturing terrorists?

Wait. Do you mean "WHO CARES about" as in who cares to torture them? Or "WHO CARES if" they are tortured or not?

Answer to the latter is: Humane people who think torture is reprehensible, especially in terms of 'international rules of engagement'. You know, war crimes. Crimes against humanity.
Lots of people think that torture is never acceptable.

I would rather just KILL Jihadis instead of catching them, only to be released, myself.

Hmmm. And you say

Jihadis that try to come to America (The land where films like "SAW" are popular)better PRAY civilians don't catch them if water boarding is considered scary.
We use THAT in training our aircrews.

"we" do?

Whose "aircrews" are trained to KILL them on sight, or do worse than 'water-boarding'? You (or whoever) are training 'your aircrews' to threaten that American civilians would see to it that "jihadis" fare much worse than mere 'scary' water-boarding if they are 'caught by civilians?

Really? That's barbaric - and stooping to the same level as guys beheading people, and bombing schools and markets, etc. So - what country do you live in? Iran? Saudi Arabia? Iraq?

Who is it teaching those things to 'aircrews' in training? Who is training those 'airmen' to make people believe that in the hands of American civilians those people will fare much worse than they would in Gitmo?

I'm sorry -- what 'aircrews' are being taught "THAT"?? Are they contractors? North Koreans? Assad's fighters? And do you think that is acceptable?

What about these ISIS maniacs beheading hostages? Are your 'aircrews' being taught that such a thing as THAT is acceptable?

Sorry - I find your attitude incomprehensible. Unthinkable.
Monstrous.
Just like 'their' attitudes - you know, 'baby beheaders'.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I've read articles by Jeremy Scahill, don't recall reading books though.

it is beyond me how they have remained inured....

An incoming President does not want to set a precedent of Presidential prosecution, and being chief executive over Justice department, kills ongoing investigations. That's how it happens. And Presidential protections usually extend to cabinet members also.

But back on topic: the link that I gave for John Horgan. It reads like a resume for the benefit of securing government funding. Remember before ISIS? The U.S. was funding anti Assad terrorism. I just looked at the Wikipedia page. WOW!

The people(U.S. etc.) funding Wahhabi extremists against the Assad government (Christian, Shia Islam, moderate) are now painting Assad as instigator of the people who are against him. Are Americans buying this propaganda?

The OP article: "More than 1,200 French have traveled or are planning to travel to Syria to wage jihad, the largest group among Western nations." The French can't just deny Air Line tickets? Come on!

Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant#Finances
ISIL is widely reported as receiving funding from private donors in the Gulf states,[615][616] and the governments of Iraq and Iran have repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of financing and supporting the group. Ahead of the conference of the US-led anti-ISIL coalition held in Paris in September 2014, France's foreign minister acknowledged that a number of countries at the table had "very probably" financed ISIL's advances.[617]

Although Iran and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding the group,[618][619] there is reportedly no evidence that this is the case.[119][619][620] However, according to The Atlantic, ISIL may have been a major part of Saudi Arabian Bandar bin Sultan's covert-ops strategy in Syria.

a reply to: pthena

Yeah, Jeremy Scahill:

Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield. Book, film, website.

And
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

Very disturbing stuff, indeed.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

The Airforce S.E.R.E. course uses water boarding to train US aircrews to endure torture so they can survive capture. Killing on sight IS the job of soldiers who should come across them.
REALITY is apparently a bit TOO much for...where EVER it is you are from.
BABY killers I believe is the nomininal "Hippie" term by the way,BIT cliche however. Makes you sould P.C. which, as fate would have it ,I AM AT war with,as a cultural varience.
NO need to apologize evidently you didn't KNOW we are at WAR with Jihadis whom I PERSONALLY would care to engage and ,yes my little snow flake, shoot in their maniacle HEADS in order to remove THEM and their ideas from the face of the earth.

fromthegreennotebook.com...

a reply to: cavtrooper7

NO need to apologize evidently you didn't KNOW we are at WAR with Jihadis whom I PERSONALLY would care to engage and ,yes my little snow flake, shoot in their maniacle HEADS in order to remove THEM and their ideas from the face of the earth

Oh, trust me, mister soldier - I appreciate that. There are things worse than being killed. And I do understand your rage and assure you my husband (a veteran) has the same attitude about certain factions. In fact, I really wouldn't weep if the entire Middle East was leveled....but somehow in my conflicted snow-flakey little mind I'd hate to see Mulalah killed, or any more children (although most of them are probably too traumatized and indoctrinated to EVER have normal lives so it's already too late for them to be turned around) - and the devastation of our planet - but what is going on there has to STOP. Yes, it needs to STOP. Now. Today.

Do I think these psycho monsters should be rounded up and vaporized? I do, as a matter of fact. I just wonder how many generations it will take before there are MORE adults mentoring youths toward peace and FEWER adults that are teaching them to murder.

Thank you for wanting to protect us.