How can President Joe Biden attend a somber prayer service in New Orleans on Monday, January 6, 2024, allegedly to comfort families of victims impacted by the New Year’s Day terrorist attack, and on the very same day release 11 Islamic terrorists associated with the worst attack on America?
Evidently, our lame-duck president isn’t serious about the terror threat, which means he is setting us up for more attacks in the future.
The optics of Biden allegedly grieving with the victims of terrorism on one hand at an Interfaith Prayer Service in New Orleans, and on the same day release nearly a dozen terrorists, should alarm all Americans. Unfortunately, nothing seems out of bounds for the departing, failed Biden presidency – even terror hypocrisy.
On Monday, Biden’s Pentagon announced it released 11 Yemeni detainees with suspected ties to al Qaeda from our detention facility at Guantanamo Bay [GITMO], Cuba. That facility was established in the wake of the terror attacks on America on September 11, 2001, by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists that claimed 2,750 lives in New York, another 184 at the Pentagon and 40 aboard an airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania.
The Pentagon statement announcing the release promised, “Although different processes, each of the Yemeni detainees underwent a thorough, interagency review by career professionals who unanimously determined all detainees as transfer eligible consistent with the national security interests of the United States.”
However, that statement fails to guarantee these prisoners won’t return to terrorism because we know otherwise.
In fact, the Pentagon statement indicates the real objective is to close GITMO, not prevent more terrorism. After all, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin notified Congress in 2023 of his intent to repatriate those detainees to their home country. Further, he wrote, “The United States appreciates the willingness of the Government of Oman … to support ongoing U.S. efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility.”
It is noteworthy that President-elect Trump previously stated that to release detainees or close the GITMO facility made the US look weak on terrorism. Indeed, that’s especially true in the wake of the New Orleans carnage, the worst Islamic-inspired domestic terrorist attack in decades.
Of course, the terrorist release makes Biden’s remarks at the New Orleans prayer service ring hollow. “I know events like this are hard. The shock and pain is [sic] still so very raw,” Biden told the crowd gathered to remember the 14 people killed and 35 injured in the “horrific act of terrorism.” If Biden really shares their grief, how can he in good conscience and on the very same day justify releasing terrorist detainees who will in all probability return to a life of terror to kill and injure more Americans?
After all, relocating these terrorists to Oman means they will inevitably be released and some will return to terrorism. A 2016 report by the Director of National Intelligence found at the time that 17.5 percent of GITMO detainees released to other countries reengaged in terrorism.
Why was Oman selected to take these terrorists? It was selected for resettlement because Yemen, which shares a common border with Oman and the 11 detainees’ home country, is locked in a civil war and plays host to the Houthis, an Iranian proxy, which continues to terrorize maritime traffic in the Red Sea and launch ballistic missiles at Israel. Therefore, it is easy to anticipate that once the GITMO 11 are inevitably released by neighbor Oman, they will go home to Yemen and join ongoing terrorist activities.
Further, Biden’s lack of seriousness about the terror threat was evidenced when the administration offered sweetheart plea deals for the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Predictably, these deals were slammed by 9/11 families and Republican lawmakers but evidently applauded by the Biden administration.
“We are 100 percent against the plea deal. The whole process has been a disaster,” said Sally Regenhard, the mother of a New York City firefighter killed while responding to the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.
Biden’s terror track record is palpable. Any leader serious about snuffing out terrorism would not: allow the 9/11 mastermind to escape the death penalty; seek to close down GITMO while terrorism is still a serious threat; send terrorists to countries that will eventually release them to kill again; pretend to grieve with hurting Americans when his actions say something radically different.
It will be refreshing once Biden’s term is past and President-elect Trump takes the mantel of leadership to once again get tough on terrorists.
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