Gitmo Prisoner Released by Obama Arrested in France Recruiting for ISIS
Shocking… not.
by Trey Sanchez
Another terrorist released from Guantanamo Bay under President Obama, who wanted to shut the place down, has been arrested in France for recidivism.
Judicial Watch reports that Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar, released to France in 2009, was caught running a recruiting network for ISIS in the community of Bordeaux. Lahmar was confined to the U.S. military prison in 2002 charged with multiple links to terror plots and was a member of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group which targeted the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.
Lahmar’s Department of Defense file states:
“Detainee advocated hostilities against US forces and the international community in Bosnia, and is linked to multiple terrorist plots and criminal related activity. Detainee had intentions to travel to Afghanistan and Iran, and is reported as doing so prior to his capture. Detainee has demonstrated a commitment to jihad, and would likely engage in anti-US activities if released.”
The Pentagon determined Lahmar was a high-risk prisoner and considered of high intelligence value. In addition, the detainee was paid by the Saudi Arabia government and worked for the Saudi High Commission for Relief, which is listed as “a non-governmental organization.” He was arrested in 1997 for assault on an American citizen in Bosnia but released thanks to his Saudi connections and was a suspect in the bombings in Travnik and Mostar that same year. The DOD file states that Lahmar is a wanted man in Belgium and France for “violent activities.”
Judicial Watch has more information:
Despite his disturbing Pentagon document, the Obama administration released Lahmar from the top security compound at the U.S. Naval base in southeast Cuba in 2009 after France agreed to take him. This week he was arrested in Bordeaux as part of a terrorist cell that operated a recruiting network for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). A British newspaper report says Lahmar was one of six people—four men and two women—captured as part of an aggressive crackdown on a jihadist recruiting network in the European nation that’s been rocked by multiple terrorist attacks in recent years. Just a few years ago a former Gitmo captive, 46-year-old Moroccan Lahcen Ikassrien, was arrested in Spain for operating a sophisticated recruitment network for the Syrian and Iraqi-based terror group known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Like Lahmar and Ikassreien, many of the captives released from Gitmo have predictably returned to terrorist causes and it has long been documented in military and intelligence assessments. Just last year a report issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) showed that of the 161 Gitmo detainees released by the Obama administration, nine were confirmed to be “directly involved in terrorist or insurgent activities” and that 113 of the 532 Gitmo captives released during the George W. Bush administration have engaged in terrorist activities.
The report goes on to note that dozens of Gitmo releasees have rejoined al-Qaeda, while others have joined up with ISIS in Afghanistan.
According to Obama’s National Intelligence director, one in four Gitmo inmates returned to the battlefield after being released.