Former Gitmo detainee described as fomenter of war

Former Gitmo detainee described as fomenter of war

news.yahoo.com

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Before he was released from Guantanamo, a Saudi detainee insisted he had only wanted to help refugees and was not a fighter. Now, as an al-Qaida field commander sporting a bandolier of bullets, he is threatening the United States and has been hailed by a militant Web site as a veteran guerrilla and "a fomenter of war."

The story of Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi underscores the dilemma Barack Obama's administration finds itself in: Keeping men locked up without trials invites global criticism but releasing them without a fair and diligent process to distinguish enemies from noncombatants exposes the U.S. and its allies to danger. It also shows how hard it is to separate truth from lies.

Al-Oufi was one of two former Saudi detainees at Guantanamo, the U.S. military prison in Cuba, who resurfaced last week in video clips as al-Qaida fighters in Yemen. Their identities were confirmed in recent days by a U.S. counterterror official. Al-Oufi was detainee number 333 at Guantanamo.

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No doubt this is propaganda to keep the innocent Muslims from being released from Gitmo which I deemed as the most hated prison in the world. Makes China or Cambodia look like daycare. He was indeed a Muslim who was helping refugees, not a "terrorist" fighting in Afghanistan. I mean who you going to listen to? The U.S. govt. or him?

But the biography said he had fought in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Kashmir before he was captured, and had narrowly escaped death when "an American rocket" hit a house in Afghanistan where he and 13 other mujahedeen were sleeping. Al-Oufi was the only survivor and "was not hit by even one piece of shrapnel."

The biography tries to present al-Oufi in a heroic light, using flowery language.

"He continued fighting until Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Americans," said the biography. "He could not help but go to Pakistan and wait there until the Taliban started anew, and then he would return. But Allah determined for our lion to be imprisoned."

Adam Raisman, a senior analyst at SITE, said al-Faloja, where al-Oufi's biography was posted, is a jihadist forum. He said the entry was the user's first posting so its authenticity could not be ascertained, but noted that it was not deleted by the forum administrators or questioned by it members. SITE, which has provided accurate information in the past, thought it was reliable enough to e-mail the contents to its subscribers.

I'm betting it was the CIA who made the bio to make him look bad or evil.



news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by deltaboy
No doubt this is propaganda to keep the innocent Muslims from being released from Gitmo which I deemed as the most hated prison in the world. Makes China or Cambodia look like daycare.

A bit of hyperbole there, huh? You ought to read a bit of history first. I think the Chinese labor camps are a bit more abusive.

Originally posted by deltaboy
He was indeed a Muslim who was helping refugees, not a "terrorist" fighting in Afghanistan. I mean who you going to listen to? The U.S. govt. or him?

Really? And what makes you think he's telling the truth?