On Wednesday afternoon, Fox News reported “developing” news that
Sufyan bin Qumu (full name Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed
Hamuda Bin Qumu ), a terrorist who was released from Guantanamo Bay
to the Libyan government, may have been actively involved in, or
perhaps the leader of, the
assault on America’s consulate in Benghazi that killed our
ambassador and three other American personnel.
The release of bin Qumu, who goes by many aliases, was made in
2007, during the George W. Bush administration.
Fox News also
reported on Wednesday that it obtained a Department of Homeland
Security intelligence report “showing that two days before the
deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, a statement incited
‘sons of Egypt’ to pressure America to release the so-called blind
sheikh ‘even if it requires burning the embassy down with everyone
in it.’”
The administration’s ongoing assertion that the violence was
only about a juvenile film trailer, and that it did not represent
an attack on America for some other reason, is rapidly falling
apart.
It was a sign either of narcissism or incompetence (most likely
both) for the administration to have doubled down on such an
unlikely claim, but then if it said anything else it would mean
even greater culpability than the administration would already have
(simply for leaving our people inadequately guarded on 9/11).
If these stories turn out to be true, it could — and should —
be a politically fatal blow to this administration’s entire senior
foreign policy staff, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
and UN Ambassador
Susan Rice, as well as Obama’s Press Secretary
Jay Carney. Our Teflon president, strutting around calling Mitt
Romney “new” to foreign affairs and talking about what he’s learned
in his few years in office, will likely escape serious criticism by
the media.
This despite that in his call with the terrorist-sympathizing
president of Egypt, Obama “said that he rejects efforts to
denigrate Islam, but underscored that there is never any
justification for violence against innocents.” A normal human
being, not to mention the president of the United States, would
have emphasized the latter point first and made the second point a
minor afterthought if mentioning it at all.
While Fox News reports that this is new information, other
sources have suggested bin Qumu and the Ansar al-Sharia militant
group as leading suspects behind the attack for several days. (See
here,
here, and
here.)
Reading through the 2005 Department of Defense report on bin
Qumu (which appears to have been scheduled to remain classified
until the year 2030) is like a trip through an Alice in Wonderland
version of national security. Some highlights include:
- “Detainee has non-specific personality disorder.” (Hmmm…being
a drug-addicted religious fanatic wanting to kill everyone who
disagrees with him might be a clue.)
- “(D)etainee is assessed as a former member of the Libyan
Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a probable member of Al Qaida, and a
member of the North African Extremist Network (NAEN). Detainee used
his employment at the Wafa
Humanitarian Organization (Al-Wafa) as a front for extremist
activities. It is assessed this detainee is a MEDIUM to HIGH risk,
as he is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests and
allies.” (emphasis in original)
- And I just love this one: “Detainee has latent Tuberculosis and
refuses treatment.” The perfect terrorist: if he doesn’t shoot you
or blow you up, he’ll cough on you.
More highlights, “based solely on the detainee’s
statements”:
- Bin Qumu was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Libya for
“crimes including murder, physical assault, armed assault, and
distributing narcotics.”
- He “trained at Usama Bin Laden’s Torkham Camp.”
- He worked as a truck driver for a company owned by bin
Laden.
- He joined the Taliban in 1998.
Bin Qumu was transferred to Guantanamo because he was believed
to be a valuable source of information on the Al-Wafa Organization,
its operations and officials, and its relationship with al
Qaeda.
Among the Department of Defense’s “reasons for continued
detention” were:
- “The Libyan Government considers detainee a ‘dangerous man with
no qualms about committing terrorist acts. He was known as one of
the extremist commanders of the Afghan Arabs.’”
- Bin Qumu was probably recommended to Osama Bin Laden by Ibn
Sheikh Al Libi, the former second-in-command of al Qaida.
- He “has known or suspected associations” with at least twenty
members of “terrorist groups which pose a clear and immediate
danger to US persons or interests.”
- An alias of his “was found on al Qaida’s 11 September attacks
financier’s…laptop as an al Qaida member receiving family
support.”
- “JTF GTMO determined this detainee is of HIGH intelligence
value.” (emphasis in original)
Based on this data, the DoD Memorandum and Detainee Assessment
reached the obvious conclusion: “JTF GTMO recommends detainee be
Transferred to the Control of Another Country for Continued
Detention (TRCD).”
This was releasing an extremely dangerous and motivated enemy of
America into the custody of Muammar Gaddafi, proving that stupid
decisions are not limited to Democratic administrations. Gaddafi
released bin Qumu from prison in 2010 as part of a celebration of
41 years of dictatorship, a decision he soon regretted as the
terrorist almost immediately became a leader of the Libyan
revolution.
Far from being a spontaneous reaction to a pathetic 14-minute
YouTube video, the attacks on U.S. property and personnel last week
were preceded by activity that either was or should have been
detected and acted upon by our intelligence agencies and the State
Department.
Even without such intelligence, however, the criminal negligence
of releasing a villain like bin Qumu is matched by the criminal
negligence of leaving American personnel and property with utterly
inadequate security across the Muslim world on the anniversary of
the 9/11 attacks.
What’s worse, the State Department appears to have largely
relied on the local police or military for protection despite a
background of frighteningly frequent “green
on blue” attacks in Afghanistan (which speak to the power of
religious fanaticism over the responsibility of one’s uniform in
that part of the world) and an Egyptian military cowed into
submission by the new Muslim Brotherhood government.
The mindset that would prohibit U.S. Marines from guarding
consulates in Arab countries and perhaps disallow the use of live
ammunition in the skeleton private security forces assigned to
these facilities is not limited to the Obama administration.
It is part of the liberal mental disease of believing that
terrorists can be reformed and that the victims are to blame for
their own deaths and suffering. Indeed, the story comes full circle
with Wednesday’s news about bin Qumu, less than 18 months after the
New York Times, this administration’s very own Правда
(Pravda), during the Libyan revolution wrote an article
about the very same personality-disordered drug-addicted tubercular
homicidal maniac,
calling him “an ally of sorts.”
It would be one thing if this particular aspect of the liberals’
disconnect with reality were mostly harmless, like their belief in
man-caused climate change that to date has basically only cost us
money.
But misunderstanding our enemy, an enemy absolutely bent on our
destruction and willing to wait years, even centuries, to
accomplish that goal, is a recipe for self-destruction. The Obama
administration’s deception of itself and of the nation is a
predictable but unforgiveable failure.
And it is a failure that is self-reinforcing, as its projection
of weakness and gullibility encourages our enemies to attack us
again.
One can only wonder whether Clinton, Rice, Carney, or the
impenetrably narcissistic Obama will one day be heard sleepwalking,
muttering in well-earned perpetual guilt, “Out,
damn’d spot!”
