- One former detainee toured Afghanistan with bin Laden as he received pledges of obedience from terror cell leaders
- Another was a prolific forger based in Iran who helped Islamist extremists cross into Afghanistan
- A third was convicted in absentia for his role in a foiled terror attack aimed at killing American military personnel on an air base in Belgium
- Five in all were sent this week to the nations of Georgia and Slovakia
- Most recent prison release leaves 'Gitmo' with 143 detainees
- Men were called high-risk prisoners in classified 2008 Pentagon evaluations, but were reevaluated after Barack Obama became president and cleared to leave when a country could be found to take them
- Obama famously pledged in 2008 to close the prison camp
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Five prisoners released Thursday from the U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba included hard-core al-Qaeda members who traveled and worked closely with terror leaders Osama bin Laden and Abu Zubaydah.
The move is being seen as part of the Obama administration's effort to shutter the military detention center, a promise the president made during his 2008 campaign but which he has yet to fulfill.
Although an administration task force found in 2009 that they no longer posed a great enough threat to keep behind razor wire indefinitely, classified documents demonstrate that only a year earlier they were deemed high-risk and likely to re-engage in hostilities against the United States and its allies.
In an April 2008 evaluation report, the Department of Defense determined that one of the men, 36-year-old Yemeni citizen Abdel Ghaib Ahmad Hakim, was 'a member of al-Qaeda who reportedly accompanied Osama Bin Laden throughout Afghanistan.'
SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE INTELLIGENCE REPORTS
The U.S. Naval detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is a political hot potato, with President Barack Obama insisting it should be closed and congressional Republicans saying there's nowhere safe to send hardened al-Qaeda terrorists
Former Guantanamo Bay detainees Hashim Bin Ali Bin Amor Sliti (left) and Husayn Salim Muhammad Al-Mutari Yafai (right) have been released to the government of Slovakia
Abdel Ghaib Ahmad Hakim (left) and Abdul Khaled Al-Baydani (right) were sent to the nation of Georgia
Intelligence agents learned that he went with the 9/11 mastermind as he toured Afghanistan to receive 'bayat' – declarations of allegiance – from terror cell leaders.
Less than a year before the Obama administration first reclassified him as a detainee who could leave, the Pentagon ruled that Ahmad Hakim was a 'high risk' prisoner, 'as he is likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies.'
He was also described in the report as having 'high intelligence value' to the United States.
That assessment was based on the conclusion that he was 'a member of Abu Zubaydah's Martyrs Brigade, a Faisalabad [Pakistan] cell intended to conduct IED attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces.
A second released terror suspect, 37-year-old Husayn Salim Muhammad Al-Mutari Yafai, also from Yemen, was an al-Qaeda forger.
Another April 2008 Department of Defense report referred to him as 'an al-Qaeda facilitator located in Iran providing travel and false travel documents to Arab extremists attempting to enter Afghanistan.'
He, too, was deemed 'a high risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies.'
Yafai, his assessment concluded, 'is an assessed al-Qaeda member who has information on al-Qaeda associated guesthouses and safe houses in Afghanistan and Iran.'
In January 2009 before Obama's task force met, the Pentagon declared in a supplemental report that he was 'a probable recidivist candidate.'
'If released without rehabilitation, close supervision, and means to successfully reintegrate into his society as a law-abiding citizen,' the addemdum read, 'it is assessed detainee would seek out prior associates and reengage in hostilities and extremist support activities at home and abroad.'
The reports covering Hakim and Yafai recommended 'continued detention under DoD control' for both men.
Yafai was released to Slovakia. Akim went to the former Soviet nation of Georgia.
Sliti, a 48-year-old Tunisian, was a member of an Islamist extremist organization called the Tunisian Combatant Group.
His classified assessment revealed that in 2004, he was convicted in absentia on terrorism-related charges for his role in suicide attacks – 'including a foiled attack against U.S. military personnel at the Kleine Brogel Air Base in Belgium.'
His jailers considered him a high-risk prisoner, writing in 2008 that he had 'holds anti-US sentiment and on more than one occasion has threatened to kill members of the guard force.'
An older assessment on another inmate released this week, written in 2004, concerned the 52-year-old Al-Dhabi, a Saudi- born Yemeni man.
He was trained to use rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the Sadeeq terrorist camp in Afghanistan, the Pentagon found. And 'in Kandahar, the detainee and his family stayed in an apartment provided by the Taliban.'
'This detainee is a member of Al-Qaeda and/or its global terrorist network,' the report concluded, adding that he 'has demonstrated a commitment to jihad, has links to key facilitators in Al-Qaeda's international terrorist network, has participated in terrorist training, likely participated in direct hostilities against the U.S. and coalition forces, and maintains the capability to continue to do so if released.'
The report's author, U.S. Army Brigadier General Jay Hood, wrote that Al-Dhabi's specialized terror training suggested that the only safe way to release him would be to transfer him to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where he could be monitored intensely.
'He is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests and allies,' Hood wrote
The Defense Department reports, classified as 'SECRET,' were first released by the controversial Wikileaks website in 2011 but have since been lost in the Internet's staticky coverage of America's war on terror.
EMPTYING: The Obama administration has released nearly 100 Guantanamo Bay prisoners
Leaving for what? Many released Guantanamo Bay detainees have returned to the battlefield in the Middle East, including one who is now in the ISIS leadership structure
California Republican Rep. Buck McKeon, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, said Thurdsay that 'as long as detainees are rejoining the battlefield, these transfers must stop.'
“I have written to Secretary [Chuck] Hagel expressing my frustration and great concern over a new swell of recidivism. If just one U.S. soldier loses their life over these transfers, we will have failed in our duty to the American people.'
'What the Obama Administration is doing is dangerous and, frankly, reckless,' McKeon said. 'They have chosen many times to put politics above national security. It’s time they stop playing with fire and start doing what’s right. Until we can assure the terrorists stay off the battlefield, they must stay behind bars.'
Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss, likely to be the next chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also slammed the White House for its latest move.
'For years, we’ve seen the president put politics over America’s national security by releasing Guantanamo Bay detainees and transferring them to other nations,' he said in a statement.
'Dangerous and, frankly, reckless': House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon blasted the White House
'These are dangerous terrorists who will continue to plot ways to harm and kill Americans, just like previous detainees released to foreign countries who have reengaged in terrorism.'
Obama, he said, 'seems more occupied with efforts to fulfill a campaign promise than ensuring these terrorists cannot rejoin the fight.'
Guantanamo Bay now holds 143 prisoners, about 100 fewer than the number when Obama took office.
Congress had repeatedly prohibited the release of any inmate to domestic American prisons and put tight restrictions on other releases as well. But those limits were mostly lifted in December 2013, and more of what the White House and the Pentagon call 'resettlements' are expected before the end of the year.
Another 74 prisoners at Guantanamo have already been cleared to leave. Fifty-five got the green light from an Obama-appointed task force in 2010.
'These men were approved for transfer by consensus of the six departments and agencies comprising the task force,' the Pentagon said Thursday in a press release.
Overall, 620 detainees have been released from the prison camp; 107 have returned to the battlefield and another 77 are suspected of doing so, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
One of the confirmed terrorist fighters who returned to the Middle East, Abdul Raheem Muslimdost, was determined to no longer be an 'enemy combatant' in 2006, during the George W. Bush administration. A Pakistani newspaper reported this year that he is now among several Pakistanis with leadership positions in the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that U.S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan has been trying to persuade countries to accept prisoners from Guantanamo.
Three were sent to Georgia and two to Slovakia. Those countries now hold a total of 16 former terror detainees once held at the prison.
'We are very grateful to our partners for these generous humanitarian gestures,' Sloan said in a statement.
'We appreciate the strong support we are receiving from our friends and allies around the globe.'
2014-Nov-20 GTMO detainee releases uploaded by MailOnline
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