Obama Frees 20th 9/11 Hijacker -Today It’s Osama bin Laden’s Aide; Tomorrow It Could Very Well Be The Blind Sheikh

by Matthew Vadum

The Obama administration quietly shipped Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard back to the Wahhabist Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last week despite warnings that the Muslim terrorist remains a serious threat to the United States.

The newly released terrorist detainee is Abdul Shalabi, 39, who trained to be the 20th hijacker for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Shalabi was set free even though military officials deemed him too dangerous to be unleashed on the world and too valuable as an intelligence asset to be released from U.S. custody.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said last week that the liberation of Shalabi, whom he referred to as a “dangerous detainee,” is “another example of President Obama playing politics with national security and putting campaign promises ahead of U.S. national security interests.” Shuttering the terrorist detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has long been a goal of President Obama, going back at least to the campaign trail in 2008.

Shalabi’s unshackling should have Americans wondering which bloodthirsty jihadist is next to be released by the soft-on-Islamism president of the United States. Could it be the “Blind Sheikh,” a.k.a. Omar Abdel-Rahman, who orchestrated the deadly bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993? News reports that the Obama administration is working on releasing the deadly fatwa-issuing cleric linked to the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat go back years. The sheikh is a hero to his followers, including deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, and a spiritual leader of al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.

At home President Obama could win kudos from his allies in the increasingly violent Black Lives Matter cult by pardoning unrepentant cop-killers Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur, a fugitive granted political asylum by Communist Cuba. Obama could boost the burgeoning anti-incarceration movement by making history with a sweeping prisoner amnesty, framing it as harmlessly setting free “all non-violent offenders” in federal custody.

Barack Hussein Obama knows he won’t have to face the voters in another election so the sky’s the limit.

The process by which Shalabi won his freedom offers disturbing insights into the system that determines if a terrorist detainee should be held indefinitely in wartime as allowed under the laws of war.

In May 2008 when George W. Bush was president, Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr., then the commander of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo, recommended in a since-unclassified memothat Shalabi’s detention be continued.

Spelling the word high in block capitals and boldfacing it for emphasis, Thomas warned that Shalabi was “[a] HIGH risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies[,]” “[a]HIGH threat from a detention perspective[,]” and “[o]f HIGH intelligence value.”

Born Dec. 4, 1975 in the Muslim holy city of Medina, Saudi Arabia, Shalabi is a man of many aliases. He has also been known as Abdul Rahman Shalabi, Abdul Rahman, Abd al Rahman Shalbi Isa Uwaydah, Abdul Haq Rahman, Saqr al-Madani, and Mahmud Abd Aziz al-Mujahid.

Shalabi, who had been on a hunger strike for years at Guantanamo, is a member of al-Qaeda who began working as one of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards in 1999, the memo stated. Shalabi “received advanced training at multiple al-Qaida camps” and “received specialized close combat training for his role as a suicide operative in an aborted component of the 11 September 2001 al-Qaida attacks.”

“Detainee attended an elite commando course run by al-Qaida operative Salah al-Din Abd al-Halim Zaydan aka (Sayf al-Adl) at the Mes Aynak Training Camp in 1999,” Thomas wrote. “This course was offered to select trainees who had already received al-Qaida’s basic training.”

Shalabi was involved in “hostilities against U.S. and Coalition forces and was captured with a group referred to as the Dirty 30, which included UBL [Osama bin Laden] bodyguards and an assessed 20th 11 September 2001 hijacker.” Shalabi, who has “familial ties” to bin Laden, “will likely reestablish ties to al-Qaida and other extremist elements if released.”

Thomas argued that Shalabi was far from rehabilitated (assuming rehabilitation is even possible for a jihadist). His behavior while confined was atrocious.

Thomas reported:

His overall behavior has been mostly noncompliant and hostile to the guard force and staff. He currently has 95 Reports of Disciplinary Infraction listed in DIMS with the most recent occurring on 27 February 2008, when he was reported spitting on the guard force. Detainee has 11 Reports of Disciplinary Infraction for assault with the most recent occurring on 27 February 2008, when he was reported spitting on the guard force. Other incidents for which he has been disciplined include inciting and participating in mass disturbances, failure to follow guard instructions and camp rules, inappropriate use of bodily fluids, unauthorized communications, damage to government property, attempted assaults, assaults, provoking words and gestures, and possession of food and nonweapon type contraband. On 7 August 2005, detainee was reported to be in possession of broken glass (shank).

“Does that sound like someone who is going to be rehabilitated in Saudi Arabia?” Investor’s Business Daily editorialized. “Or someone who will be returning to the terrorist battlefield to wage jihad against America?”

Even if Shalabi does not return to terrorism, his release provides a morale boost for those who support the jihadist cause, the newspaper opined. “He was also on a partial hunger strike for nine years at Gitmo, and will undoubtedly be used in Islamist propaganda against U.S. detention policies once he returns to his home.”

Some commentators accused the Obama administration of releasing Shalabi suddenly and without warning on Sept. 22 while the public and the media were distracted by the first-ever visit of Pope Francis to the United States.

While the timing of Shalabi’s deinstitutionalization may be suspect, the process that led to his repatriation began at least two years ago.

Following the great American journalistic tradition of undermining U.S. national security to sell newspapers, the Miami Herald set in motion the events that led to Shalabi’s low-key exfiltration from U.S.-held territory.

In June 2013, the U.S. Department of Defense released a list of detainees held at Guantanamo in response to a lawsuit filed by the newspaper. The media outlet then reported that Shalabi was one of 48 Guantanamo detainees “deemed too dangerous to release but ineligible for trial.”

An unclassified transcript of an April 21 hearing of an Obama administration-controlled detention review board indicated its unnamed “presiding member” said Shalabi behaved badly in detention and “has refused to respond to substantive questions.” That board, established under Executive Order 13567 (issued March 7, 2011 by President Obama), convened to hear evidence about whether Shalabi’s continued detention at Guantanamo “remains necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.” The panel, according to the U.S. military, “consists of one senior official from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and State; the Joint Staff, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.”

In a little-noticed development, the board determined June 15 that “continued law of war detention of the detainee is no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.” The board recommended Shalabi be returned to his native Saudi Arabia.

At the April hearing, Shalabi’s private counsel, Julia Tarver Mason-Wood, told the board that she had “represented Mr. Shalabi on a pro bono basis for almost a decade.” She said her client “wants to make clear that he harbors no ill will to the United States, the American people, and non-Muslims.”