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| Arabia | ||
| Kuwaiti Gitmo hard boy sent home | ||
| 2014-11-06 | ||
| One of two remaining Kuwaitis held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay was sent home Wednesday after nearly 13 years in detention, a Pentagon spokesman told AFP. Fawzi Al Odah, 37, boarded a Kuwaiti government plane at 5:30 am (1030 GMT), said Lieutenant Colonel Myles Caggins. He is the first inmate freed since late May, bringing the total number of detainees at the prison on a US naval base in Cuba to 148. Al Odah and fellow Guantanamo detainee Fayez Al Kandari were arrested in northern Pakistan in late 2001 by tribesmen who sold them to the Pakistani army who in turn handed them over to the United States.
However, the board ruled that Al Kandari "almost certainly retains an extremist mindset and had close ties with high-level Al Qaeda leaders in the past," and recommended against his release.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 Bridget Johnson of PJMedia adds these details: Al Awda, 37, is an experienced terrorist recruiter with London ties, returning to his home country as intelligence agencies have been on the alert for Western jihadist recruitment. “Detainee is assessed to be a member of al-Qaida,” reads the 2008 DoD assessment. “Detainee’s name is included on al-Qaida affiliated documents, and he was reported to have sworn bayat (oath of allegiance) to UBL. Detainee has been identified as an associate of UBL and his spokesman, Sulayman Abu Ghayth. Detainee is a reported member of a London-based al-Qaida cell under Abu Qatada and is assessed to be an extremist recruiter and courier. Detainee attended militant training at al-Qaida and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LT) camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan and was identified as receiving suicide training.” He then “participated in hostilities against US and Coalition forces and served on an Islamic committee providing inspiration to fighters in Tora Bora.” The assessment noted his history of “jihadist combat” and ties to “extremist affiliated” NGOs, and adds that he “has received coded communications from a Kuwaiti extremist.” Al Awda was determined to be a high risk to the U.S., a high detention threat and of high intelligence value. His father was a Kuwaiti pilot, and Al Awda came to the U.S. as a young child when his father was sent to train here. Al Awda graduated from the University of Kuwait in 1998 with a degree in Islamic studies and traveled to Pakistan shortly thereafter; the same year he was spending time with Abu Qatada’s group in London. He then worked for the Kuwaiti government in its Alms and Charities Agency. “Detainee was also identified as being in Bosnia fighting alongside Arab mujahideen,” the report states. In 1999, he was in Houston on what he said was a visit to his sick grandmother. Al Awda was in the mountainous border region of Afghanistan near Pakistan when the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks happened. He was soon captured by Pakistanis and turned over to the U.S. in January 2002. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2014-11-06 09:20 |
| #2 Just don't anyone mention the Embedded GPS chip... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2014-11-06 05:41 |
| #1 Should have "disappeared" before he went home. |
| Posted by: chris 2014-11-06 04:31 |