"USS Cole commander blasts transfer of Al Qaeda Gitmo detainees to Saudi Arabia"

Fox News:  Kirk Lippold, who was commanding officer of the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer when suicide bombers aboard a small fishing boat blew a hole in the side of the ship, told FoxNews.com Mashur Abdallah Ahmed al Sabri's release was a mistake.

"I would have liked to have seen him receive a military commission where he was tried, convicted and sentenced and then his suitability for release determined under the laws of armed conflict," Lippold said.

"From the perspective of the American people and my crew, he’s never been held accountable," Lippold added.

In addition to those killed, 39 service members were wounded in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack, which came as the Cole refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden, nearly a year before Al Qaeda would register its signature attack, on 9/11.

"Ex-Guantanamo detainee now an al Qaeda leader in Yemen"

“Detainee is an admitted veteran jihadist with combat experience beginning in 1990 and it is assessed he would engage in hostilities against US forces, if released,” JTF-GTMO [Joint Task Force Guantanamo threat assessment] found.

In 1990, Qosi met two al Qaeda members who recruited him for jihad in Afghanistan.

Qosi was then trained at al Qaeda’s al Farouq camp, which was the terror group’s primary training facility in pre-9/11 Afghanistan. In 1991, Osama bin Laden relocated to Sudan and Qosi followed. He worked as an accountant and treasurer for bin Laden’s front companies, a role he would continue to fill after al Qaeda moved back to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the mid-1990s.

JTF-GTMO found that after an attempt on bin Laden’s life in 1994, Qosi was chosen to be a member of the al Qaeda founder’s elite security detail. He was also picked to perform sensitive missions around that time.

For example, Qosi served as a courier and may have delivered funds to the terrorist cell responsible for the June 25, 1995 assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Qosi relocated to Chechnya that same year, before returning to bin Laden’s side in Afghanistan some time in 1996 or 1997.

“From 1998 to 2001,” JTF-GTMO’s analysts wrote, Qosi “traveled back and forth between the front lines near Kabul and Kandahar to help with the fight against the Northern Alliance.”

In Dec. 2001, the Pakistanis captured Qosi as he fled the Battle of Tora Bora. He was detained as part of a group dubbed the “Dirty 30” by US intelligence officials. The “Dirty 30” included other members of bin Laden’s bodyguard unit, as well as Mohammed al Qahtani, the would-be 20th hijacker. Qahtani, who was slated to take part in the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings, had been denied entry into the US just months before.

While detained at Guantanamo in 2003, Qosi was asked why he stayed true to bin Laden for so many years. According to JTF-GTMO, Qosi explained it was his “religious duty to defend Islam and fulfill the obligation of jihad and that the war between America and al Qaeda is a war between Islam and aggression of the infidels.”

Qosi made it clear in AQAP’s [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] new production that he hasn’t changed his opinion in the twelve years since.

"A Guantanamo Bay prisoner has an online dating profile"

"says he is 'detained but ready to mingle'"

Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani is looking for love on Match.com from the confines of his prison camp, where he has been held since 2007.

According to his lawyer Carlos Warner, who monitors the account, al-Afghani set up the profile in 2012.

With the location set to 'Guantanamo Bay', his tag line reads, 'detained but ready to mingle' - and he gets matches every day.

"President Obama to veto any attempt to block Gitmo closure"

"White House spokesman says the president is in the final stages of a plan to shut the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay."

The White House is “in the final stages of drafting a plan to safely and responsibly close the prison at Guantanamo Bay,” spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during a Wednesday briefing.

The closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has been a goal of President Barack Obama since his first days in office. In January 2009, Obama signed a directive ordering the detention facility closed within a year, but opposition rose over the ensuing months and eventually scuttled his plans. Earlier this year, Obama expressed regret over not simply closing the facility at once.

Apparently we are going back to pre-9/11 ante, of trying terrorists in American courts. Presumably affording them all the rights and privileges of American citizens.

"U.S. sends 5 Guantánamo detainees to European resettlement"

"The Pentagon sent five long-held Arab detainees to resettlement in Europe on Thursday, three to Georgia and two to Slovakia."

The transfer, announced after a U.S. C-17 cargo plane cleared Georgian airspace in its two-nation mission, left 143 captives still at the prison camps in southeast Cuba.

At the State Department, spokesman Ian Moss said transfer decisions are tailored to each cleared-detainee case.

“While our policy preference is to repatriate detainees where we can do so consistent with our national security and humane treatment policies, under certain circumstances the most viable transfer option is resettlement in a third country,” Moss said by email.

While everybody was focused on Obama's unilateral immigration action, the administration was releasing more Guantanamo prisoners. I thought it was the worst of the worst left there.

"Because we make unsettling music, we can see it being used in a weird way. But it doesn't sit right with us."

"We sent them an invoice for our musical services considering they had gone ahead and used our music without our knowledge and used it as an actual weapon against somebody," keyboardist Cevin Key recently told CTV News. "I am not only against the fact they're using our music to inflict damage on somebody else but they are doing it without anybody's permission."

"Skinny Puppy first learned about the alleged use of their music from a former Guantánamo Bay guard, who was "affected or offended" by the detention camp's practices. Although the Vancouver-born band originally planned to use their new album cover as an invoice to the Pentagon, they have now received "coaching" and apparently sent an actual physical document to government officials. They are even considering a lawsuit."

"Industrial band Skinny Puppy demand $666,000 after music is used in Guantánamo torture"

Guantanamo librarians have said in the past that they screen reading material for sexual content,

even blacking out photos of scantily clad women in the advertisements in sports magazines.

50 Shades of Grey is more popular that the Koran at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

During a visit last week, Reuters saw an eclectic mix of books in numerous languages, from religious tomes to Star Trek novelizations, Agatha Christie mysteries, stress reduction workbooks and the Greek classic "The Odyssey."

That's good. Whatever keeps their minds occupied as long as they cannot hurt anybody. I understand a good mind stimulus activity used widely to keep captive's minds from wasting is to hide their food. 

nypost, Reuters