General News of Monday, 11 January 2016

Source: dailyguideghana.com

Gitmo ex-convicts dangerous – Analysts

Gitmo ex-convicts transfered to Ghana Gitmo ex-convicts transfered to Ghana

It has emerged that the decision by the Mahama-led administration to allow two suspected Al- Qaeda terrorists to be hosted in Ghana for the next two years was for a promise.

According to Catherine Herridge, the Chief Intelligence Correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington DC, the gesture was certainly for a “promise.”

“…Here is a thing the people are missing, these countries are not taking them out of the goodness of the heart, they are taking them because they have been promised something in the future by the US…”she stated.

She said the suspected terrorists are dangerous a million times to the United States.

The government stunned many Ghanaians, when it announced last week that Ghana would for the next two years host the terrorists who were previously being held at Guantanamo Prisons in the United States.

Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby are being offered humanitarian assistance in Ghana under a deal reportedly signed by the Mahama administration and US authorities.

According to a statement signed by Hannah Tetteh, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the assistance being offered the ex-inmates was at the request of the US government.

“At the request of the US Government, we have also agreed to accept two detainees of Yemeni origin who were detained in Guantanamo but who have been cleared of any involvement in any terrorist activities and are being released,” it said.

Just on the heels of the announcement by the government, Fox News reported on Wednesday that “Bin Atef is an admitted member of the Taliban and fought for Osama bin Laden, while Al-Dhuby trained with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.”

The Chief Intelligence Correspondent insists both men trained at the Al-Farouk Training Camp at Afghanistan, adding that “this is no camp for Boy Scotts, they trained four of the 9/11 hijackers; this is a hard core Al-Qaeda training camp.”

Catherine said the duo were picked up by the United States government just after the 9/11 attacks.

Bin Atef, the Pentagon said, was a high risk to the US.

Wikileaks docket on him from 2007 indicate that at a time he had threatened to kill US citizens on multiple occasions, including a specific threat to cut their throat upon his release.

The Pentagon had previously said Al-Dhuby posed a medium risk if released.