Former Gitmo detainee wanted for participation in Benghazi attack
All those innocents we unfairly held at Guantanamo - shame on us! Poor, misunderstood little terrorists. We shouldn't have acted in such a beastly way toward them.
Meanwhile, the latest report on recidivism by Guantanamo detainees shows that 29% of those released have gone back to what they know best - being terrorists. And one of them is wanted in connection with the attack on our diplomatic mission in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee is suspected to have played a role in the 2012 Benghazi attack, The Washington Post reported late Tuesday.
Abu Sufian bin Qumu was released from the U.S. prison in Cuba in 2007, sent to Libya where he was detained, and then was released in 2008, according to the newspaper. He now leads a group called Ansar al-Sharia in Darnah, Libya.
Unidentified officials familiar with the situation told the Post that militiamen under Qumu's command were in Benghazi the night of the attack on Sept. 11, 2012.
It's unclear, however, whether they were in the city collaborating in the attack or were there coincidentally, the report says.
Regardless, the State Department is preparing to soon designate Qumu's group in Libya as a terrorist organization.
The Post reports U.S. intelligence officials know Qumu well. He trained in the early 90s at one of Osama bin Laden's terrorist camps, and joined the Taliban's fight against U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He was later captured in Peshawar, Pakistan and brought to Guantanamo Bay.
Officials are also looking into whether those who killed an American schoolteacher jogging in Benghazi in December were linked to the 2012 attack.
There is little doubt that some of those released by the US have gone back to Afghanistan or traveled to Iraq to kill Americans since 2009. Many of those held in Guantanamo and since released were charged with acts of terrorism against Americans. The fact that there was considerable international pressure to release them should not have played a role in the decision about what to do with them. Instead, President Bush palmed most of them off on other countries where they were either "re-educated" or held briefly and then released.
So shall ye sow, so shall ye reap.