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The Re-Jihading of Gitmo Alumni
As many as 36 ex-Guantanamo prisoners have participated in terrorist attacks against the US and our allies. Jihadi recidivism is an unfortunate consequence of how war is conducted in our "enlightened" 21st century.
It’s a 21st century war story for a 21st century war, touching and tragic in its own way.
The long strange odyssey of Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi reportedly came to an end two weeks ago, when along with two fellow jihadis, he finally achieved his goal of martyrdom in Mosul, Iraq. As is commonly said in cases of death so young, he died doing what he loved.
It’s a tale that undoubtedly starts with some degree of youthful idealism or disaffection in his native, oil-rich Kuwait, with a social network for native sons unrivaled in the world … no heavy lifting jobs, subsidized education and hefty housing, marriage and child-rearing incentives. But al-Ajmi, seeking something more in life, wended his way eastward to the mountains of Afghanistan. Here the trail becomes indistinct, maybe a little obscured. Al-Ajmi variously claimed to have experienced high adventure on the Taliban frontlines, and to be nothing more than a devout lad, in Afghanistan to study the Koran among the semi-literate hill dwellers. But where’s the romance with no mystery?
What is indisputable is that in 2002, during a period of great upheaval in Afghanistan, al-Ajmi’s life trajectory took an abrupt westward turn to what must have seemed, when they finally took the sack off his head, a most unlikely destination for an adventurous yet pious Kuwaiti. A cyclone-fenced dog run amid palm trees on a Caribbean isle. In 2005, after three years in custody at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he was sent home to face trial in Kuwait, where he was acquitted and allowed to resume his normal life.
And then he blew himself up in Mosul a few weeks ago taking seven Iraqi soldiers with him.
“We don’t know what motivated him. His family apparently was shocked to hear that he had conducted the bombing,” said Major Bradford Leighton, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, quoted by AFP.
Here’s the Arabic equivalent of what readers may recognize from other violent tragedies as the “He was just turning his life around” quote.
“We were shocked by the news,” Salem al-Ajmi told the APin Kuwait. “After his return from detention, his life was normal.”
His cousin tells the AP al-Ajmi had married, had one child and another on the way, but a few weeks ago, he began disappearing for days at a time. Then came the call. The article reports that the caller told his family al-Ajmi had “died in Iraq.” The more likely rhetoric would be “shahid,” a more poignant, stirring term. Martyred for the love of Allah, even as he gave seven people the opportunity to join his jihad, bestowing smaller martyrdoms on 28 others.
To the extent this may be viewed as a negative, al-Ajmi’s lawyer Tom Wilner explains to the AP that the downward spiral of al-Ajmi’s life is our fault.
Guards broke his arm when he was praying, Wilner said. Sounds like a heck of a spirited prayer session. Al-Ajmi, in line with the thinking of many of his advocates in the United Sattes, Europe and the Middle East, was unable to reconcile himself with his status as a prisoner of war, held without charge.
“I don’t know whether the experience of being kept down there in isolation radicalized him,” Wilner said. Radicalized him more, Wilner may have intended to say, seeing as carrying a gun for the Taliban arguably suggests some degree of radicalization had already taken place.
Wilner explained to the AP that al-Ajmi’s decision to abandon his family and seek martyrdom as a suicide bomber in Iraq was a “tragedy” that could have been avoided if activist lawyers’ demands for civilian trials, rather than military tribunals, were granted. It is an odd thing for a lawyer to say, given that a court of law freed al-Ajmi, but matters of law can be complex. Given that al-Ajmi told his interrogators in Guantanamo “he now is a jihadist, an enemy combatant, and that he will kill as many Americans as he possibly can,” it seems charmingly naive and trusting of the Americans to send him home.
U.S. officials say up to 36 former detainees have resumed violent jihad since being allowed to go home. Of more than 500 released, that doesn’t sound so bad. It sounds a little worse when you learn that of those more than 500, only 38 were stripped of combatant status and freed outright, no longer considered threats. The rest, under a policy of placating ambivalent allies, were simply transferred to the custody of their home countries or moved to third countries, to be dealt with as local authorities saw fit. It was not immediately clear how the 36 recidivist jihadis are divided among those categories of ex-detainees.
C’est la guerre. That’s how the war goes for 21st century America, where the constitutional rights of prisoners of war is an issue that is seriously debated not only by fringe activists but by federal judges and members of Congress.
Now this regrettable business of re-jihadis rears its head, as they seek to kill innocent Iraqis, Afghans and Americans, whoever comes within range of their explosives and their guns.
Not much of a price to pay, perhaps, a mass murder incident here, a mass murder incident there, when the alternative is holding battlefield prisoners indefinitely. Much as Americans were once held by their German and Japanese captors — only without the starvation, forced labor, savage beatings, etc. Much as Germans and Japanese prisoners were once held by the United States … for two years after the end of hostilities in many cases … except of course for those war criminals who were tried and executed.
This more relaxed attitude toward people who have made poor choices in life could be seen as a sign of a more enlightened age, of a more advanced humanity. This is not the Good War of our fathers and grandfathers, where liberation is only a human meat grinder of total war away. The point has been made that this is no war at all, but a police matter. Confining human beings indefinitely without charge is wrong, and understandably makes them hate us. It hardly seems fair, upon presuming the capacity of a few dozens of angry men to kill no more than maybe another dozen, maybe a hundred, maybe on a good day a few thousand, to diminish ourselves by depriving them of their liberty. It may be better, and considerably more efficient, to no longer seize them at all absent proper police investigations and charges.
But we can be proud at least, having freed so many, that we are setting a good example for al Qaeda, and perhaps will encourage them to do likewise, rather than releasing their captives into roadside ditches — in pieces.
Jules Crittenden, a Boston Herald editor, blogs at Forward Movement.
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33 Comments
1. John Samford:Anyone that helped him get out of Gitmo should be charged as a terrorist. See if those that give aid and comfort to terrorists enjoy taking responsibility for their actions.
May 9, 2008 - 2:16 am 2. Bill Hayden:Question is, do you want to send your sons and daughters into battle, in defense of a Nation of people (ours) that is willing to let enemy combatants be released, and then turn around and kill your sons and daughters?
May 9, 2008 - 5:36 am 3. Jules Crittenden » “He Was Just Turning His Life Around”:[...] after all. Crittenden at Pajamas, with a tragic tale of life and death on the mean streets of Any Jihad, Greater Umma. It’s just another story from this damned war, and maybe they’re right. Maybe we [...]
May 9, 2008 - 6:30 am 4. croisan:Sadly, many innocent lives are destroyed by these cowards. They don’t fight the fighters – they blow up innocents. It is not martyrdom – it’s “cowardom”. What kind of brain-washing can make them think they are going to Heaven for that??? I’ll never, never understand how an educated person like Salih al-Ajmi can come to believe that.
May 9, 2008 - 6:30 am 5. ursa major:I don’t know what history books Crittenden is reading. If he thinks that the Japanese did NOT starve, beat and force into labor the thousands of Americans they took prisoner, then he is a gullible fool. His last paragraph about “setting a goo example for al Qaeda” is particularly disgusting.
May 9, 2008 - 7:06 am 6. rotwang:Better question: Do you want to send your sons and daughters into battle, in defense of a Nation of people (ours) that is comfortable operating extraterritorial detention camps where unidentified inmates can be incarcerated and interrogated indefinitely without charges or evidence, and with only a shameful burlesque of legal process (which even our military finds bizarre and repugnant)? We have no idea who these people are or how they came into our possession, and we don’t care — because someone told us they’re all “terrorists.” What was “degenerate and totalitarian” when the Soviets did it has miraculously become a patriotic prerogative. Any “America” that abandons its principles out of fear and mindless nationalism isn’t really America.
May 9, 2008 - 7:27 am 7. HardHeadedWoman:Sarcasm is a concept you really don’t understand is it, Ursa Major?
May 9, 2008 - 7:29 am 8. Michael Sheehan:To ‘ursa major’:
May 9, 2008 - 7:38 am 9. Red wang:Take a deep breath and read the article again … slowly.
Also … try looking up the definition of ’satire’.
Hey Rotwang – Yep, and I would even go myself if they would take me (I am already a veteran before you ask). It’s obvious to all but you ostrich-types that these people are terrorists. Even the recent 36 who went home to blow up innocents could have told told you that. We do know who these people are and how they came into our possession. You need to do a little research and spend a little less time on the moveon.org website.
May 9, 2008 - 8:02 am 10. Brad:Yeah, Crittendon should pick up a book called “First in Nagasaki” and educate himself about Japanese POW camps. And that’s just one book among plenty out there. I learned some time ago, too, when working at the Nat Archives, that many American POW officers (shot down pilots) were shot by their captors AFTER the bombs, and with their own serice revolvers.
But he can read about hellish voyages on POW ships to Japan, beatings, starvation, little to no medical treatment, forced labor in mines in the above mentioned book.
May 9, 2008 - 8:18 am 11. Smarty:That is what happens when we listen to liberals, give them the benefit of the doubt etc. In fact, liberals are so wrong, so much, that it is not just stupidity, it is treason. They are constantly pushing us in directions that hurt us, and their words repeatedly show that they think we deserve to be hurt.
Even now, it is because we don’t want to have to deal with the crying and sueing from liberal quarters that we don’t militarily aid the Zimbabwe opposition (when the return on any military investment would be sky high), or the people of Bolivia. We are letting the world go to hell, and we are allowing ourselves to be weakened, because we don’t have the guts to deal with liberals correctly. Trials for treason and sedition. Impeachment of judges. That is what we need. Or else we will need our own Pinochet culture to counter the Che culture.
May 9, 2008 - 8:49 am 12. Bill Quick:All you folks going into hysterics over Jules’ supposed ignorance of WWII POW history should read a bit more carefully. Admitted, Jules’ syntax here is a bit more complicated than necessary, but what he is saying is this: “The alternative is for us to hold prisoners indefinitely – much as the Germans and Japanese did in WWII (or we also), but we will hold them without the beatings, forced labor, starvation, etc. that characterized the Japanese and German POW camps.”
Take a deep breath.
May 9, 2008 - 9:04 am 13. Wolf Pangloss:I believe ursa major misread Mr. Crittenden.
Not much of a price to pay, perhaps, a mass murder incident here, a mass murder incident there, when the alternative is holding battlefield prisoners indefinitely. Much as Americans were once held by their German and Japanese captors – only without the starvation, forced labor, savage beatings, etc.
The distinction between Gitmo and Japanese labor camps is that the Japanese starved, forced labor, beat savagely, and so on. This is clear from the text I’ve included.
Perhaps a <sarc> tag could have clarified things for readers too ready to jump to conclusions.
May 9, 2008 - 9:08 am 14. A Lack of Seriousness « The View from Alexandria:[...] lack of seriousness we display in the war on terror. This morning, evidence for this is all around. Thirty-six detainees at Guantanamo have been released only to return to jihad; one alum recently blew himself and four Iraqi troops up [...]
May 9, 2008 - 9:53 am 15. Aaron:I agree that the paragraph is clearly sarcasm, but it’s not well written. It doesn’t contain any true sentences. Perhaps the writer should try out the standard subject/verb type of sentence structure if he wants to be understood.
May 9, 2008 - 10:54 am 16. Mike H.:Aaron, either you have a tag that you forgot to include () or you have an ego that exceeds all competent bounds of analysis. Try a bit of humility, it works wonders in gathering others to your eristic position. /not sarc.
May 9, 2008 - 11:33 am 17. P. Ami:@Aaron,
Were the sentences not “true sentences” in A) Not being sentences by definition or B) Not containing truth?
I wonder if the first fragment of your first sentence might be better understood if you wrote, “I agree that the paragraph is clearly sarcastic, but it’s not well written”. A bit better, right?
Notice any shards of glass at your feet, perhaps some pebbles?
May 9, 2008 - 12:08 pm 18. garrett:All GITMO detainees should be returned to the judicial system of the country in which they were captured, regardless of their wishes. None should be returned to their country of citizehship.
GITMO detainees from Afgahnistan will probably be recaptured and interred there, but more likely killed in a fire fight. I’m sure that you have notice that the rate of kill to capture is quite high.
Iraq’s justice system inothing, if not efficient. Most terrorists will get the rope. Can’t argue with that, can you. Multicultural respect and all.
May 9, 2008 - 12:39 pm 19. crittenden:Hate to belabor a point already well made, but I’m with the ones who are saying “satire.” You know its good when you take in a few. Given the density on that point, maybe the paragraph’s fine and it’s a matter of poor reading. Anyway, re Japan/POWs, this may help clarify at least in part my level of ignorance: Truth Hurts
May 9, 2008 - 1:48 pm 20. Tom W.:Thanks all for reading and commenting, even the boneheaded ones.
“Question is, do you want to send your sons and daughters into battle, in defense of a Nation of people (ours) that is willing to let enemy combatants be released, and then turn around and kill your sons and daughters?”
Can we please stop with the smarmy, schmaltzy, hand-wringing, sissy-pants, drama-queen clichés?
Nobody is “sending their sons and daughters into battle.” Every member of the U.S. military is an ADULT who joined up voluntarily. If these adults no longer want to fight, they’ll find a way to get out the service.
And what the hell is the alternative to defending this country, as flawed as it is? Not defending it?
Strangely, the members of the military see this imperfect country as being well worth defending with their lives. The re-enlistment rate is phenomenal.
So let’s please stop with the bleating, weepy, limp-wristed moaning about “sending our sons and daughters into battle.”
May 9, 2008 - 5:22 pm 21. Fat Jolly Penguin:re Tom W.:
Very nice. I’d like to add that the military wouldn’t have as many volunteers if this country and this cause weren’t worth fighting for.
May 9, 2008 - 11:17 pm 22. Tony:Well said Tom W – I was particuarly struck by this line of Rotwangs;
“Any “America” that abandons its principles out of fear and mindless nationalism isn’t really America.”
What a load of nonsense.
The thugs who want to drag civilisation back into the 7th century must be laughing their asses off at the moral binds we in the West try and wrap ourselves up in. The sooner we can confront the enemy without one hand constantly tied behind our backs the better. For everyone.
May 9, 2008 - 11:58 pm 23. Ben:“Any “America” that abandons its principles out of fear and mindless nationalism isn’t really America.”
The funny thing (ironic / oxymoronic type funny) about rotwang’s remark is that the idea that there are certain principles that are uniquely American and that anyone not subscribing to those principles is unpatriotic is mindlessly nationalistic and quasi-fascist in itself.
May 10, 2008 - 12:10 pm 24. Digital:I am not sympathetic to either America or members of extremist Islamic organizations – but after years of constant torture you’d think those guys would like a little revenge – I know I would…..
May 10, 2008 - 4:13 pm 25. casey:To his kin folk I am truly sorry for your loss, May his spirit be with God allways, Casey.
May 11, 2008 - 1:44 pm 26. Matt:A (authoitative) word from Islam: (Not likely to be researched/reported by the media)
Following the conquest of Mecca, Muhammad outlined the future of his religion.
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177; Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, “The Hour {of the Last Judgment} will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”
Volume 1, Book 2, Number 24; Narrated Ibn Umar: Allah’s Apostle said: “I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform that, then they save their lives and property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah.”
It is from such warlike pronouncements as these that Islamic scholarship divides the world into dar al-Islam (the House of Islam, i.e., those nations who have submitted to Allah) and dar al-harb (the House of War, i.e., those who have not). It is this dispensation that the world lived under in Muhammad’s time and that it lives under today. Then as now, Islam’s message to the unbelieving world is the same: submit or be conquered.
May 13, 2008 - 10:40 am 27. Mabel:To Digital and others whose hearts cry for the “tortured” terrorists…what torture? A little water up their noses? Only 3 were waterboarded which is the ONLY thing that resembles anything like torture. Instead, our capture GIs are beheaded, burnt, cut to little pieces and I’m sure more than just waterboarded before that…let’s have sympathy for those who truly deserve it: the victims of these deranged nuts.
May 13, 2008 - 2:02 pm 28. Wonk Room » Report: Scalia’s Claim That Released Gitmo Prisoners Have Killed Americans Is An ‘Urban Legend’:[...] conservative urban legend was recently parroted by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissent from the Court’s [...]
Jun 21, 2008 - 8:12 am 29. Report: Scalia’s Claim That Released Gitmo Prisoners Have Killed Americans Is An ‘Urban Legend’» « FRUQTADA…bROKEN GOVERNMENT:[...] conservative urban legend was recently parroted by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissent from the Court’s [...]
Jun 21, 2008 - 10:25 am 30. Report: Scalia’s Claim That Released Gitmo Prisoners Have Killed Americans Is An ‘Urban Legend’ | freedetainees.org:[...] conservative urban legend was recently parroted by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissent from the Court’s [...]
Jun 22, 2008 - 11:34 am 31. essbeck:June 17, 2008
SETON HALL LAW REPORT: DEPT. OF DEFENSE DATA REVEALS NO RELEASED GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEE EVER ATTACKED ANY AMERICANS.
http://law.shu.edu/administration/public_relations/press_releases/2008/guantanamo_data_reveals_61708.htm
Jun 23, 2008 - 9:13 am 32. Libertyman13:Wow, the authoritarians shut up pretty quick after that link got posted. You people who would sell our liberty so cheaply for a rumor are the real traitors.
Jul 24, 2008 - 11:34 am 33. The Gitmo Dilemma: “We need to destroy our enemies, not guarantee their rights” » Winds Of Jihad:[...] way that he didn’t while running for office. For instance, according to some reports, as many as 36 former Gitmo detainees have gone on to participate in terrorists attacks upon their release from the facility. It may be [...]
Nov 20, 2008 - 12:49 am