I won’t say the Credentialed Media didn’t cover this, they just did it quietly, in stories that were buried deep in the paper/web editions, that people probably didn’t notice
While Americans were focused on a Chinese spy balloon making its way across the country, the Biden administration quietly released an al Qaeda terrorist radicalized by the September 11 attacks from Guantanamo Bay.
The Pentagon announced on Thursday that Majid Khan, 42, was moved to Belize after spending 16 years in CIA custody.
Authorities have maintained he was a close personal ally of al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who helped deliver money and transport other senior terrorists. And under Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s plans, Khan would have attacked US gas stations and water reservoirs.
Khan, the only United States legal resident being held at Guantanamo, now says he has changed as an individual and promises to be a law-abiding citizen in Belize.
His release comes just one week before a United Nations visits the detention center in Cuba, as United States officials work to free two other al Qaeda terrorists.
Khan, who graduated from a Maryland high school before joining the terrorist organization, started his new life in Belize on Thursday, after completing his 10-year sentence in March 2022.
The Biden admin has apparently been working on this for months, as negotiations started with Belize in September. And what a perfect time to release him, when something big was going on. They didn’t let a Chinese spy balloon cross the entire U.S. in order to create a distraction, did they? In fairness
He pleaded guilty in 2012 to conspiracy to commit murder, spying and ‘providing material support for terrorism.’
Khan was then sentenced to 10 years confinement with ‘credit for the three years he spent cooperating with US personnel.’
That sentence ended March 1, 2022, but authorities had to find a country willing to take him before he could be released. Though he has family in the United States, federal law does not allow Guantanamo Bay detainees to be resettled in the country.
So, he had to be released, but, it was done quietly. Should have sent him to Rehoboth, Delaware. I’m sure they could have found space.
16 years is probably long enough. If we aren’t going to kill him, may as well let him go. I wonder how much we paid Belize to take him.
LOL How ironic.Do these corrupt politicians not realize; that these cells they are emptying; will soon be occupied by them?
Jymn, that is highly unlikely. Even if some politicians were convicted of crimes, they would go to prisons in America.
Mr Teach whines:
LOL.
It was the media, GOPhers and rightists who made a big deal about the balloon.
So it was under bush that he was given the 10year plea deal?
Trach I can’t recall you saying the sentence was too short back in 2012.
The military was lucky he pled guilty they will not agree to try anyone who was repeatedly tortured into confession.
Remember confession seldom gives actionable intelligence, it is really only good for forcing someone to say whatever you want.
Thanks H, for telling us the same exact talking points from the democratic party during the Bush administration. Nothing gets by you.
Although TV movie after TV movie shows that torture gives reliable information, isn’t torture illegal, both in the US and internationally?
Anyway…
But not one torturer in the Bush, Obama or Trump administrations have been arrested.
Far-rightists don’t care if torture is effective. Pain and humiliation of the “enemy” is the point.
Dear Elwood:
Intelligence does not depend on 1 bit of information. Intelligence depends on a carefully woven mosaic of things said, and not said, from information from public and private sources.
He’s just repeating old talking points. First among them is conflating discomfort with “torture”. Just like calling Trump supporters insurrectionists and terrorists. For democrats, it’s all about the hate, theft and envy. Communism just doesn’t sell that well in modern prosperous societies. College students probably think they are hearing all that for the first time, but us mature Americans remember the Democratic party using it over and over for decades.
Let’s see-Trump got Sullamani at Baghdad Airport within 24 hours, Brandon takes a fricking week to shoot down a ballon.
Seems about right.
Remember Joey likes him some balloons.
And little girls.
#Brandon/Lumpy2024
Bwaha! Lolgf
Could the commenter comment on what he/she considers “torture”?
As decent people have opposed torture, advocates has been busy devising torture methods that are less detectable. Waterboarding, psychological torture, sleep deprivation, extremes of heat or cold, as opposed to extracting fingernails or amputating digits. Studies have repeatedly shown that torture does result in a marginally better confession rate but at the cost of a significant increase in false confessions.
Is it torture to be forced to watch another being tortured? Perhaps a friend, colleague or family member? What would one NOT confess to if the interrogators were threatening to torture your wife or child? Would that be legit?
For cons, the extraction of information is not the objective – pain and humiliation of the “other” is.
Off topic: The Capitol insurrectionists tried (stupidly) to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. Just because insurrectionists are stupid doesn’t excuse their treason.
Just go google the old arguments from the 90’s for yourself. They are all still there. Nothing new to be said. No breakthroughs in “torture ” technology or philosophy have happened since then.
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