Obama’s Next Gitmo Jailbreak

Posted on March 31, 2016March 31, 2016 by Denise Simon

Obama to Release Ex-Fighter from Bin Laden’s  55th Arab Brigade From Gitmo

FreeBeacon:

The Pentagon plans to transfer roughly a dozen detainees from the Guantanamo Bay military prison to other nations, including an Islamic extremist who fought in Osama bin Laden’s 55th Arab Brigade.

The 055 Brigade (or 55th Arab Brigade) was an elite guerrilla organization sponsored and trained by Al Qaeda that was integrated into the Taliban army between 1995 and 2001.

U.S. officials confirmed to the Washington Post Wednesday that Tarik Ba Odah, a Yemeni who has been on a hunger strike for more than nine years, would be among those resettled within the next few weeks in at least two cooperating countries.

The military has force-fed 37-year-old Ba Odah through a nasal tube since he began his fast in 2007, Reuters reported. In December, his body weight had dropped by half, falling from 148 pounds to 75.

The U.S. Department of Defense file for the detainee, published by the New York Times, provides insight into his ties to Osama bin Laden.

“[Ba Odah] is assessed to be an Islamic extremist and possible member of al-Qaida. Detainee served as a fighter in Osama bin Laden’s 55th Arab Brigade, and participated in hostilities against U.S. and coalition forces in [bin Laden’s] Tora Bora Mountain complex where he probably manned a mortar position. Detainee is reported as being an important man with close ties to senior al-Quaida members including [bin Laden],”the file reads.

Ba Odah also confirmed to U.S. officials that he received militant training and advanced artillery training from al Qaeda, according to the report.

When officials assessed Ba Odah in 2008 for continued detention, the Department of Defense classified him as a high risk threat to the U.S. and its allies.

He was also classified as a high-risk threat from a detention perspective for his noncompliance and hostility toward Guantanamo guards. As of January 2008, he had received 81 reports of disciplinary infraction. Incidents included Ba Odah spraying a mix of feces, urine, and water out of his cell and spitting on a guard, according to the file.

In 2009, Ba Odah was clear for transfer under certain security conditions, but Congress has since banned repatriations to Yemen.

The officials declined to identify the countries that agreed to resettle the prisoners.

Guantanamo currently holds 91 detainees. Thirty-seven prisoners have been approved for repatriation or resettlement.

President Obama vowed to close the military prison after taking office in 2009 and has since transferred, resettled, or repatriated 147 detainees. Obama’s plan to close the prison, which he recently delivered to Congress, would involve moving dozens of prisoners not approved for transfer to other countries to the United States.

Current law bars the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to detention facilities inside the U.S., but Obama has threatened to circumvent the congressional ban through executive action.

****

In part from FNC: The next round of Gitmo transfers will begin this weekend with two detainees going an undisclosed country in Africa.

In January, the Pentagon conducted a bulk transfer of 10 detainees at once, the largest transfer from the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo, Cuba to date.

This next transfer of Gitmo detainees can’t happen all at once because the Pentagon is required by law to notify Congress 30-days before any transfers.

Capitol Hill sources tell Fox News that period has not elapsed yet for all the transfers.

The first notification went to Congress in early March and the second one in the middle of this month.

The president’s critics in Congress point out that in addition to keeping terrorists from returning to the fight, they also demand a plan for handling ISIS detainees, now that a 200-man special operations task force fighting ISIS and recently killed the group’s second in command last week.

The U.S. military has no plans to hold captured Islamic State operatives for more than a month before turning them over to the Iraqi government, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition based in Baghdad told reporters recently.

“Fourteen to 30 days is a ballpark figure, but even that is not really completely nailed down,” said Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman based in Baghdad. “There isn’t a hard definition of short-term.”

Earlier this month, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook also made clear that the policy for holding operatives is, at best, evolving. He said they would be handled on a “case-by-case” basis over a “short-term” period.

The lack of a well-defined policy for handling captured ISIS terrorists is in turn raising concerns on Capitol Hill.

“The law requires a comprehensive detainee policy,” a congressional aide said. “By definition, ‘we’ll figure it out if we ever capture anyone’ is not a comprehensive policy. “

Warren said that two airstrikes against ISIS chemical weapons facilities were conducted following a recent mission carried out by a US special ops assault force capturing an ISIS operative linked to its chemical weapons program.

*****

In part from Time: While hundreds of inexperienced Pakistani, Sudanese and other Muslim faithful enter Afghanistan every week to join the Taliban army, the estimated 1,000 Arabs of Brigade 055 have been in the country for years. Trained in bin Laden’s terror camps, they are the Taliban’s most dedicated and highly skilled soldiers–the elite of the roughly 5,000 al-Qaeda fighters on the ground.

About 100 of the very best serve as bin Laden’s personal security detail. Most are veterans of battles against regimes in their homelands or the mujahedin war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Primarily led by Egyptian and Saudi revolutionaries, Brigade 055 (the unit began as a Soviet-era Afghan-government outfit) also includes volunteers from Chechnya, Pakistan, Bosnia, China and Uzbekistan.

Like most al-Qaeda terrorists, brigade members are fervently committed to bin Laden’s cause, and will literally fight to the death. “They give no quarter, and they expect no quarter,” says an official at the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency. At the moment, they’re helping out at key strategic northern cities like Mazar-i-Sharif, Taloqan and Jalalabad –and, not surprisingly, becoming a major target of U.S. firepower. More here.

ISIS Moving Prisoners for an Offensive Operation?

Posted on March 31, 2016March 31, 2016 by Denise Simon

ISIS moving prisoners to Syria border town: monitor

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that prisoners were set to work digging trenches around Jarabulus.

BEIRUT – ISIS has begun to transfer its prisoners to a town along Syria’s border with Turkey in anticipation of a Kurdish-led offensive on the area, according to a monitoring NGO tracking developments in the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Thursday that the jihadist group’s Hisbah religious police was moving both civilian detainees and imprisoned fighters from its own ranks and other factions to Jarabulus, a town lying on the Euphrates River across from Kurdish-controlled front-lines.

The NGO cited activists in Raqqa as saying that the prisoners were being moved from detention facilities from the city, which serves as ISIS’s de-facto capital, as well as from Al-Bab and Manbij, two towns south of Jarubulus in a stretch of territory that Turkey does not want Kurdish-forces expanding into.

“Sources confirmed that the transfer of prisoners was done in conjunction with the spread of [reports] that [the Kurdish-led] Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are preparing for an attack on the Jarabulus district and other areas controlled by ISIS in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo,” the SOHR said.

The report added that the transferred prisoners were pressed into manual labor to set up defensive measures around Jarabulus, including digging trenches and erecting earth mounds.

The SOHR’s report comes days after Turkey’s Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency claimed that the SDF was preparing for an assault on Manbij, a town 25 kilometers south of Jarabulus.

“Officials in the party have announced over their social media accounts the ‘Greater Manbij Operation’ to seize the town,” the news agency quoted sources as saying.

Kurdish outlets affiliated with local Kurdish forces have yet to make any mention of the purported offensive, however reports indicate the US-led coalition bombarding ISIS has stepped up its airstrikes around Manbij.

Ankara has repeatedly warned that it will not allow Kurdish forces to cross westward across the Euphrates—either toward Manbij or Jarabulus—and continue to expand its presence along Turkey’s border with Syria.

Turkey considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG)—which are affiliated with the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—to be a terrorist organization.

Turkish daily Hurriyet reported Thursday Ankara was “closely following reports of a planned operation” by the SDF to take Manbij, adding that the Turkish military was ready to launch the “required response.”

In past months, the Turkish Armed Forces has shelled Kurdish units attempting to cross the Euphrates River to conduct raids on ISIS forces positioned around Jarabulus, in effect enforcing a “red line” between the YPG and Ankara’s planned “safe zone.”

*** Meanwhile:

‘ISIS is planning a major attack in Israel’

ISIS affiliate in Gaza claims ISIS will increasingly focus on US and Israel, promises a major attack in Israel is only a matter of time.

While Islamic State (ISIS) attacks in Europe and massacres in Syria and Iraq have dominated the headlines in recent months, the radical Islamic terror group may be shifting its focus, placing a greater emphasis on Israel and the United States.

This Sunday, a Gazan Salafist official and ISIS affiliate Abu al-Ayna al-Ansari spoke with an American journalist, Aaron Klein, about the terror organization’s capabilities and future plans.

Al-Ansari, who is believed to have close ties to ISIS, emphasized that the terror organization would be focusing on Israel and the US, and viewed those two nations as its primary enemies in the pursuit of an Islamic caliphate.

“Israel and the United States are at the top of the list of the targets of the Islamic State,” Al-Ansari said on the Aaron Klein Investigative Radio show. “The Islamic State educates its people that Israel and the United States are the leaders of the infidels and we believe that Israel should be disappeared [sic].”

Perhaps most disturbing, however, are reports that ISIS is building an extensive terror infrastructure along Israel’s southern border. Taking advantage of the minimal Egyptian presence in the Sinai, Wilayat Sinai (Sinai Province), an affiliate of ISIS, has expanded its capabilities for a potential attack on Israel.

According to Al-Ansari, ISIS is already planning its first major attack on Israeli soil. A major ISIS attack on Israel, he claims, is only a matter of time.

“I can confirm that it is only a question of time when there will be a big operation in Eilat and in the south of Israel. The Wilayat Sinai will be the ones responsible for the confrontation with Israel.”

Speaking with Israel Army Radio, Yehuda Cohen, the commander of the IDF’s Sagi Brigade which secures the border with Egypt, admitted that such an attack was indeed likely.

“In the end it must be remembered this organization was formed by terrorists that dream of a terror attack against Israel, and it will come. It’s clear that there will be a terror attack against Israel, I believe that it will happen during my tenure,” Cohen said.

While Israel has hitherto been spared the horrors ISIS has inflicted on Syria and Iraq, ISIS activity against Israel has been on the rise in recent months. In February a Sudanese national, allegedly inspired by ISIS, stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier, in what is believed to be the first successful ISIS attack in Israel.

Earlier in March a suicide bomber affiliated with ISIS bombed a popular shopping center in Istanbul, murdering three Israelis and wounding dozens after tracking the Israeli tourists from their hotel.

Just this Monday two Arab residents of Jerusalem were charged with planning bombing attacks on Jerusalem for ISIS – the latest in a string of small ISIS cells broken up by Israeli security forces while planning attacks.

Turkey’s President Visit to DC Caused Major Chaos

Posted on March 31, 2016March 31, 2016 by Denise Simon

Protests were to support Kurdistan, as Turkey under Erdogan has been killing Kurds.

Chaos Outside of Turkish President Erdogan’s Washington Speech

A planned speech by the controversial Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan descended into violence and chaos Thursday, with one journalist physically removed from the event site by Turkish security personnel, another kicked by a guard, and a third — a woman — thrown to the sidewalk in front of a Washington think tank where he was to speak.

A small group of protesters gathered across the street from the Brookings Institute near Dupont Circle in Washington, with one holding a large sign reading “Erdogan: War Criminal On The Loose,” while another used a megaphone to chant that he was a “baby-killer.”

When the protesters tried to cross the street, Washington police officers blocked traffic and physically separated them from Turkish personnel. A Secret Service agent standing nearby told a colleague that “the situation is a bit out of control.”

Later, a shoving match between what appeared to be a Brookings Institute worker and Turkish security broke out. “I am in charge of this building,” the apparent Brookings employee shouted as the two tangled. A Foreign Policy reporter and others holding cameras outside the event were also scolded by Turkish security. One cameraman was chased across the street by Turkish guards.

Local Washington D.C. police officers were forced time and again to get between Erdogan’s security forces and journalists and protesters. At one point, an officer placed himself between one of Erdogan’s security guards and a cameraman he was moving to confront, while another angrily confronted several Turkish security guards in the middle of the street, telling them, “you’re part of the problem, you guys need to control yourselves and let these people protest.” Another Turkish security official pulled his colleague away after he began arguing with the officer. Other members of Ergodan’s team stood in front of the Brookings building, motioning for the protesters to come closer, and making obscene gestures.

There were also confrontations between Turkish security and D.C. police. The Turkish officials wanted police to remove protesters, and the cops refused.

In a statement late Thursday, Brooking’s spokesperson Gail Chalef said that the think tank did its “best to ensure that journalists and other guests who had registered in advance for the event were able to enter.” She added that she believes all journalists who registered were able to attend.

At one point, just before Erdogan arrived, the protest briefly turned violent.

***

As he arrived, law enforcement arranged a wall of large vehicles in front of Brookings, presumably to block anti-Erdogan protesters across the street.

***

Ruh Roh, Taking the Fight to Iraq

Posted on March 31, 2016March 31, 2016 by Denise Simon

ISIS’s Campaign in Europe: March 2016

ISIS is using its foreign fighters and safe haven in Iraq and Syria to execute a terror campaign within Europe. ISIS’s March 22 Brussels attacks support a larger strategy to punish, destabilize, and polarize the West.

Here comes the Mosul offensive…

What about the Authorization for Use of Military Force? (AUMF) Here is the text Barack Obama sent to Congress last year.

The first sentence uses the word ‘limited’.

Report: 21 Generals Heading ISIS Fight in Iraq

Majority of generals are American

FreeBeacon: Twenty-one generals, a majority of them American, are heading the fight against ISIS in the Middle East, according to a report Thursday. These include at least 12 U.S. generals currently based in Iraq.

The Daily Beast reported:

There is the three-star general in charge of the war, Army Gen. Sean MacFarland, and his two deputies, one of whom is in Iraq at any given time. There is the two-star Army general in charge of the ground war, Army Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, and his two deputies, who also travel between Iraq and Kuwait. There is the two-star general in charge of security cooperation–things like military sales–and his deputy. Then there are the one-star generals in charge of intelligence, operations, future operations, targeting, and theater support. There also are an untold number of Special Forces commanders in the battlefield whom the military does not speak publicly about; the dozen figure presumes at least one one-star Special Forces general.

When taken with the count of generals based in nations like Bahrain and Kuwait to help support the mission, the generals in charge of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command, the Marine Corps Forces Central Command, and the Naval Forces Central Command based stateside, and the generals from dozens of countries belonging to the anti-ISIS coalition, the count rises to at least 21.

There are officially only 3,870 American troops in Iraq, though military officials privately indicated earlier this month that approximately 5,000 troops are operating in Iraq to assist the fight against ISIS. By this estimate, there are just over 416 troops for every single general.

Defense officials defended the count of generals in conversations with the Beast. “When you look at what they do and what they are in command of and how they provide support, I think it is justifiable,” an unnamed defense official said.

Despite the significant number of generals and increased American presence in Iraq and Syria, the Obama administration has repeatedly insisted that American troops are not engaged in combat operations against ISIS.

In one of the more recent developments in the fight against ISIS, the Pentagon secretly established a Marine fire base not far from Mosul, which serves as the first independent U.S. military position in the battle against the terror group. The existence of the fire base was only revealed after it came under attack from ISIS and one of the Marines based there was killed. The Pentagon has insisted that the Marines will only provide force protection for Iraqi and Kurdish troops there.

Concerns about ISIS have precipitated increased support for American combat operations in Syria and Iraq. The terror group has claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris, and more recently Brussels, and is also believed to have inspired the gun attack in San Bernardino, California, last December.

*****

FNC: The Islamic State, despite being driven by Kurdish fighters from its one-time Syrian stronghold in Kobani last week, nevertheless is extending its reach well beyond Iraq and Syria, military officials and analysts warn — represented, by some estimates, in nearly a dozen countries.

Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, delivered a grim assessment earlier this week in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, as he described how the group was surfacing in North Africa.

“With affiliates in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, the group is beginning to assemble a growing international footprint that includes ungoverned and under governed areas,” Stewart said.

ISIS continues to hold a wide swath of territory, bigger than the state of Pennsylvania, in its home base spanning parts of Iraq and Syria, propped up by more than 20,000 foreign fighters from at least three dozen countries. But the terror network’s tentacles, as Stewart indicated, are creeping into other nations; largely those with fragile governments.

“ISIS, like Al Qaeda, has thrived in the failed states where there is a vacuum of power,” said James Phillips, Middle East senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation.

A key worry is the group’s potential ambitions in Afghanistan, where the U.S. combat mission just ended and Afghan security forces are in control.

The First Drone, bin Ladin: No Trigger to Pull

Posted on March 31, 2016March 31, 2016 by Denise Simon

The drone was a rather experimental aircraft and used for surveillance, none at the time were armed. Why? To arm a new UAV was out of the box thinking that quickly took on a new mission, the hellfire. Furthermore, even President GW Bush had to deal with a major impediment at the time, the missile treaty.

Remember the year as you listen. America has come a very long way..

WiB: Months before the 9/11 terror attacks, U.S. Air Force captain Scott Swanson was controlling a Predator drone over Afghanistan. Swanson and his team were looking for Osama Bin Laden … and they found him.

But this was months before the Predator could fire missiles. The drone operators could only watch as the terrorist leader walked away. When the military finally gave the drones weapons, Swanson became the first Predator operator fire a Hellfire missile in combat.

This week on War College, Swanson walks us through the early history of America’s killer drone program. To learn more, Swanson recommends reading Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution by journalist Richard Whittle.