In the latest of many fringe benefits extended to the world’s most dangerous terrorists the Obama administration is allowing Guantanamo Bay prisoners—including a senior Al Qaeda operative—to speak with family via video chats similar to Skype.
The captives are “high-value” detainees locked up in a special top-security wing of the military compound at the U.S. Naval base in southeast Cuba. Two of the terrorists recently had video conferences with family for the first time since their incarceration, according to a Spanish news agency that identifies them as Abu Faraj al Libi and Abd al Rahim al Nashiri. Al Libi was the former No. 3 Al Qaeda leader, captured in 2005. His Department of Defense file says he’s a high risk prisoner of high intelligence value who served as the operational chief of Al Qaeda and had long term associations with Osama bin Laden.
Al Nashiri, also an Al Qaeda operative, is charged with orchestrating the deadly bombing of the Navy destroyer USS Cole in 2000.The USS Cole was the target of a suicide attack while the warship was moored and being refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed and dozens were injured. The blast occurred when a skiff laden with explosives detonated against the port-side hull of the USS Cole and tore a 40-by-40-foot hole in the side of the stricken ship. It was the deadliest attack against a U.S. Naval vessel since the Iraqi attack on the USS Stark in May 1987 and bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist organization claimed responsibility. Al Nashiri’s DOD file describes him as one of Al Qaeda’s most skilled, capable and prolific operational coordinators.
The two high-profile captives and their fellow terrorists will be allowed to have regular video chats with family, according to a Pentagon spokesman cited in the article. “We have concluded that increasing family contact for the High Value Detainees can be done in a manner that is consistent with both humanitarian and security interests,” said the spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Myles Caggins III. The Lieutenant Colonel pretty much confirmed that these types of perks will be commonplace for the terrorists at Gitmo. “We continually seek to go beyond a minimalist approach to humane treatment, and we endeavor to enhance conditions, consistent with security concerns,” Caggins added.
Since Obama moved into the White House privileges have vastly expanded for the terrorists incarcerated at Gitmo. In 2009 Judicial Watch, which has regularly traveled to Gitmo to cover the terrorists’ military trials, reported that U.S. taxpayers bought the captives high-tech laptops and computer lessons. That brilliant idea is part of a plan to reintroduce the prisoners into a modern society when the president fulfills his campaign promise of releasing them. They have been taught to send electronic mail and have received language and basic user skills training to help them find jobs when the leave the military prison.
Last year was an especially good one for terrorist rights at Gitmo. The administration actually let 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) dispatch propaganda from his Gitmo jail cell, undoubtedly aiding and abetting more terrorism. The manifesto, authored by the enemy combatant who’s admitted being the architect of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, was 36 pages long and received extensive media coverage worldwide. KSM has boasted of waging jihad against the U.S. and other non-Muslim nations and his Pentagon file reveals he’s a senior Al Qaeda recruiter financier and operational planner for the group’s global terrorist network. The document confirms that KSM was the “mastermind of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the hijacking of United Airlines flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.”
In 2014 the Obama administration also allowed a fighter (Moath al-Alwi) in bin Laden’s 55th Arab Brigade to publish a sob letter in an international media outlet describing the “humiliating and brutal treatments” he suffers at the U.S. military compound. Al-Alwi is a Yemeni national who served as bin Laden’s bodyguard and is described by the Pentagon as a veteran jihadist and fighter. Authorities at the prison also let the captives operate a “Business School Behind Bars” with an accused Al Qaeda financier as the self-appointed “dean of students.” Among the brilliant plans the jailed Islamic militants have come up with is a utopian, self-sufficient milk and honey farm in their native Yemen. It features a community with 200 families, 100 farmhouses, farm animals and computers.
