Gitmo Op-Ed Author Misleads Activists

[Valin]

Tipsheet:

Dalton Vogler

4/17/13

 

In a recent op-ed penned by Guantanamo Bay detainee Samil Naji al Hasan Moqbel, the Yemen-born prisoner lists multiple grievances against Gitmo and demands that he be cleared of any wrong-doing. The piece originally ran in the New York Times and has started a firestorm of criticism from human rights activists who were quick to come to Moqbel’s defense.

 

Moqbel depicts himself as a victim who was promised work in Afghanistan and then left stranded. He fled Afghanistan following the 2001 U.S. invasion into neighboring Pakistan, where he was then arrested.

 

 

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Unsurprisingly, it appears Moqbel isn’t who he claims to be. In a leaked Department of Defense assessment of Moqbel, officials labeled him as a high-risk threat, and detailed his capture with the “dirty 30”, a group of Osama Bin Laden’s closest allies and bodyguards. In addition, a Brookings Institute study examined the backgrounds of every Guantanamo prisoner and found that Samil Naji al Hasan Moqbel was in fact a bodyguard for Osama Bin Laden. The report goes on to confirm that Moqbel participated in Taliban attacks and supported the insurgency. Not exactly innocent behavior.

 

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