Obama frees 9 Guantanamo prisoners, sends them to Saudi Arabia

[James Moore]

U.S. frees 9 Guantanamo prisoners, sends them to Saudi Arabia

The worthless punk in the White House is putting more terrorists back on the battle field to kill more innocent people and potentiallyAmericans. It is beyond our comprehension to see why Obama Osama would want to release terorrists back on the battlefield. Obama is clearly the most serious threat to our national security today.

 

[waltky]

Obama gonna let `em loose to wreck havoc onna world...

Obama Administration Scrambling to Release as Many Guantanamo Prisoners as Possible
June 5, 2016 | WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is running out of time and options to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, so officials are scrambling to release as many prisoners as possible and considering novel legal strategies that include allowing some men to strike plea deals by video-teleconference and sending others to foreign countries to be prosecuted.

But it looks to be little, too late to close the prison before President Barack Obama leaves office in January, denying him the chance to fulfill a campaign pledge. There's the difficulty in transferring prisoners from the U.S. base in Cuba, questions about the legality of plea deals and solid opposition in Congress to anything that might help Obama achieve that promise. "The clock has struck midnight and the American people have won," said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who has said he would oppose any effort to move detainees to prison facilities in his state. "The president needs to admit that." Later this month, lawmakers are on track to extend a ban on moving detainees to U.S. soil. That would leave the president with no way to make the January 2017 deadline, barring an unexpected reversal in Congress or a politically explosive executive order.

The White House increasingly is pointed to a parallel strategy: trying to shrink the number of detainees in hopes of persuading lawmakers that Guantanamo is too expensive to sustain as a prison. Of the 80 remaining detainees, 30 have been cleared for an overseas transfer. Most will leave starting in late June and continuing into July, according to a U.S. official. Those prisoners will go to a number of countries, including at least one in Europe, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the administration had not authorized public release of the information. Seven additional detainees are facing trial by military commission, including five charged with planning and supporting the Sept. 11 attacks. Three others have been convicted. But commission proceedings have gone on at a glacial pace. In April, the Pentagon put forward fresh proposals for Guantanamo, but none has been incorporated into defense legislation moving through Congress.

The remaining 40 were either at one time considered for prosecution or held as indefinite "law of war detainees" until the end of hostilities in the fight against terrorism that began after the 2001 attacks. The United States started using Guantanamo for suspects in January 2002; at its peak, the facility held about 680 prisoners. U.S. officials have chipped away at those numbers through the Periodic Review Board, a multiagency task force that conducts parole-style hearings for men once deemed too dangerous to release. The board did not hold a hearing until November 2013, but recently it has picked up its pace, holding more than 20 so far this year. Outcomes are leaning heavily in prisoners' favor. If the government keeps up its current pace of about two per week, it wouldn't complete hearings, much less arrange for transfers, until December.

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11,774 Terror Attacks Worldwide in 2015; 28,328 Deaths Due to Terror Attacks
June 3, 2016 | The U.S. State Department's annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2015, released on Thursday, counts 11,774 terrorist attacks in 92 countries last year, but it says that's an improvement over 2014.

"The total number of terrorist attacks in 2015 decreased by 13% and total deaths due to terrorist attacks (28,328) decreased by 14%, compared to 2014," the report says. "This was largely due to fewer attacks and deaths in Iraq, Pakistan, and Nigeria. This represents the first decline in total terrorist attacks and deaths worldwide since 2012." "Of the 28,328 people killed in terrorist attacks in 2015, 6,924 (24%) were perpetrators of terrorist attacks," the report says. "Perpetrators were killed intentionally in suicide attacks, accidentally while attempting to carry out attacks, or by security forces or victims responding to attacks. "This is an 11% increase in the number of perpetrator deaths, compared to 2014," says the report.

The report also says the number of terrorist kidnappings and hostage-takings increased in 2015 to more than 12,100. Although terrorist attacks took place in 92 countries in 2015, they were heavily concentrated geographically, the report says:

* More than 55 percent of all attacks took place in five countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nigeria), and 74 percent of all deaths due to terrorist attacks took place in five countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Syria).

* In several countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, the Philippines, Syria, and Turkey, terrorist attacks and total deaths increased in 2015.

Other findings:

-- While the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS) was responsible for 31 percent fewer terrorist attacks in Iraq, the number of attacks carried out by ISIL in Syria increased by 39 percent.

-- The geographic reach of attacks by ISIL and its affiliates expanded as several existing terrorist groups pledged allegiance to ISIL. In addition to Boko Haram in West Africa, the most active of these ISIL branches were located in Afghanistan/Pakistan, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen.

-- The most frequent targets of terrorist attacks in 2015 were private citizens and property (attacked in 63 countries), police (attacked in 58 countries), and general (non-diplomatic) government targets (attacked in 50 countries).

-- Attacks on airports and aircraft decreased by 60 percent last year; 23 airports or aircraft were targeted in 2015, down from 58 in 2014. However, other types of transportation were targeted more frequently in 2015.

--The most commonly used terror tactic in 2015 involved explosives (52 percent), followed by armed assaults (23 percent), which almost always involved firearms.

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