Twenty-three years after the 9/11 attacks on NYC, new US intelligence documents reveal 234 “rehabbed” former Gitmo detainees have returned to terrorism and killing Americans — an alarming 32% recidivism rate. Most of them have not been recaptured and are still at large.
Nonetheless, lame-duck President Biden is quietly freeing more of these high-risk terrorist suspects from the Guantanamo Bay prison, all to fulfill his old boss Barack Obama’s pledge to permanently close the facility in Cuba.
Shortly after taking office, Biden reversed President Trump’s executive order to keep Gitmo open and is lining up more inmates to transfer out of the prison with the goal of emptying it and shuttering it — even though the remaining prisoners have long been classified by military intelligence as the worst of the worst and too dangerous to release.
Earlier this month, the outgoing president freed 11 Yemeni prisoners — all of them al-Qaeda terrorists, including two of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards — leaving the number of remaining detainees at 15. He sent them to Oman, where we are told they’ll be monitored, rehabilitated and go on to live peaceful lives.
However, some of Oman’s counterterrorism programs “were postponed or canceled” after the COVID-19 pandemic, and “Oman’s iniatives to counter violent extremism remained opaque in 2023,” according to the State Department’s latest country report. It also stated that Oman has “limited resources” and needs to “improve its CT (counterterrorism) capabilities.”
What’s more, Oman’s remote, uncontrolled borders with Saudi Arabia and Yemen present additional “obstacles for counterterrorism,” the report warned.
One of the bin Laden bodyguards released by Biden — Sana Ali Yislam al-Kazimi — was a “facilitator for the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch,” according to a declassified military dossier, and could slip back into his old role across the border.
Just six months ago, Oman abandoned 28 other Gitmo terrorists it promised to reform under an agreement with Obama. Oman stripped them of citizenship and shipped them across the border to Yemen, a known terrorist redoubt.
Perhaps it needed to make room for Biden’s 11 new parolees, who include unrepentant al-Qaida operative Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah, who’s tied to 9/11 planners and lusted for watching footage of the attacks while incarcerated and required “robust security assurances” from Oman.
Or more likely, officials in Muscat viewed them as an internal terror threat and wanted to get rid of them rather than “reintegrate” them into their society.
“Anyone who thinks they’ll be rehabbed simply doesn’t want to look at past incidents of detainees returning to the fight,” said ret. Army Lt. Col. Brian F. Sullivan, a former FAA special agent who specialized in counterterrorism.
But Biden isn’t finished. Three other Gitmo fiends have been cleared for release — including an “explosives expert who trained al-Qaeda members and provided operational support to key al-Qaida figures” and “a key member of the al-Qaeda network in Somalia,” according to Gitmo parole board documents reviewed by The Post.
And three more are eligible for review by the parole board, including Abu Zubaydah, “one of Osama Bin Laden’s most trusted facilitators,” according to his Gitmo dossier. Congress would have to be notified 30 days in advance of Zubaydah’s release, giving Republicans time to raise objections.
Even the prisoners not being released are dodging justice, with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed avoiding the death penalty as part of a sweetheart plea deal, and will instead serve life in prison.
These “forever” detainees have been charged in the military court system. Biden wants to move them out, as well, but a law blocks their transfer to US prisons. Trump has vowed to keep Gitmo open.
Biden is hellbent on clearing out the cells despite being fully briefed by his intelligence agencies that one in three released detainees have gone back to fighting against America — and some have actually managed to kill more Americans.
“Based on trends identified during the past 20 years, we assess that some detainees currently at GTMO will seek to reengage in terrorist or insurgent activities after they are transferred,” a recent US intelligence report warned.
According to the June 2024 declassified report by the Office of National Intelligence, a total of 234 of the 733 detainees released from Gitmo have reengaged in terrorist activities, including conducting and planning attacks and recruiting and funding terrorists. That’s a re-offense rate of 31.9%. (The share would be even higher if US intelligence included engagement in anti-US statements or propaganda in its definition of “terrorist activities.”)
Detainees have appealed to the Biden administration through their bleeding-heart pro-bono defense lawyers to ensure their release. They argue their bloodthirsty clients have reformed their violent ways thanks to “yoga classes” and other touchy-feely prison activities and just want to return home to help their sick moms or run their family shops.
Several terrorists have told the exact same sob story to the review board, as The Post has previously reported. But since those stories were exposed, the Pentagon has removed the detainees’ written submissions and hearing transcripts from the review board website. It claims they aren’t posted “at the request of the detainee,” but those materials have now been removed from all detainee files.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured that each of the released detainees “underwent a thorough review,” yet the public is now blind to that process.
Even more stunning: The administration admits that resettling terrorists in Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan hasn’t stopped them from returning to their violent ways. According to the 2024 ODNI report, “Former GTMO detainees routinely communicate with members of terrorist organizations.”
“Some detainees determined to reengage have and will do so regardless of any transfer conditions,” the report adds.
Gitmo inmates previously repatriated in Afghanistan are now under the care of the Taliban, who reclaimed control of Kabul in late 2021 (thanks to Biden’s disastrous troop withdrawal) and are once again sheltering al-Qaeda leaders, who no doubt have reunited with those Gitmo alumni and are plotting a 9/11 encore.
“The men Joe is sending to Oman will be no different,” said ret. Army Capt. Sam Faddis, a former CIA operations officer who served in the Middle East. “We will see them again soon on the battlefield.”
He added: “Given the open-border policies of the Biden administration and the extent of our penetration by terrorist networks, that battlefield may be right here at home.”
Paul Sperry is a senior reporter for RealClearInvestigations and author of the bestseller “Infiltration.” Follow him on X: @paulsperry_
