Obama’s terrorist ‘catch and release’ policy

[Valin]

Washington Post:

Marc A. Thiessen
7/6/11

This morning The Post reports that a Somali terrorist named Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was held and interrogated on a Navy ship for more than two months before being flown to New York to stand trial. The Post reports this morning that he “is the first foreign terrorism suspect captured by the administration outside the United States and moved to this country for trial.” This news comes a week after Vice Adm. William McRaven told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Obama administration has no clear plan for handling captured terrorist leaders if they are caught alive outside the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. McRaven testified that that “in many cases” suspects captured in secret are taken to a U.S. Navy ship until they can be tried in a U.S. court or transferred to the custody of an allied country, but if neither option is feasible, he said, the terrorist is let go. “If we can’t do either one of those, then we will release that individual,” McRaven told the committee.

Which leaves the obvious question: If Warsame is the first suspect to be transferred to the United States for trial, what happened to the others?

(Snip)

Until now, it was believed that the administration was not capturing senior terrorists alive outside the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, but simply killing them. Last year, The Post reported that there had been no known high-value detentions by the United States since Obama took office. Now, it appears, we have indeed been capturing such terrorists — and setting them free. If so, this is an outrage. With Adm. McRaven’s testimony, and today’s news, the administration owes the American people — and the United States Congress — some answers, and fast.