Pentagon releases al Qaeda bomb expert from Guantánamo

[Valin]

The Hill:

Kristina Wong

01/21/16

 

 

 

The Pentagon on Thursday announced the transfer of two Guantánamo detainees, including an al Qaeda explosives expert who developed bombs to target U.S. forces.

 

Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed al-Sawah, 58, was transferred to Bosnia, where he holds citizenship. He is an admitted member of the terror group who developed specialized bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), to use against U.S. military forces and civilians, according to his official file posted by The New York Times. "These IEDs included the limpet mine to sink US naval vessels and the prototype for the shoe-bomb used in a failed attack on a civilian transatlantic flight," his file said.

 

Al-Sawah's file also notes that while he will possibly reestablish "extremist associations," his cooperation with the U.S. government makes it unlikely he will do so.

 

The review board set up by President Obama to review remaining detainee transfers decided to release him last February.

 

The Pentagon also announced the transfer of Abd al-Aziz Abduh Abdallah Ali al-Suwaydi, a 41-year-old Yemeni, to Montenegro.

 

Al-Suwaydi admitted to being an explosives trainer, according to his files posted by the Times.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

US transfers Egyptian Guantanamo detainee who became a ‘highly prolific source’
Thomas Joscelyn
January 21, 2016

(Snip)

Normally, JTF-GTMO would have deemed a detainee with Al Sawah’s background and expertise a “high” risk to the US, its interests and allies, while recommending that he be held in detention. But there was a twist in his story.

Al Sawah became one of the US government’s most prolific sources on al Qaeda and other detainees during his time in custody. Al Sawah was so helpful, in fact, that JTF-GTMO officials recommended he be transferred out of the Defense Department’s custody, even though he had compiled an extensive dossier as a jihadist in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

At first, al Sawah was hostile to Guantanamo personnel, according to the leaked JTF-GTMO memo. But he became “compliant” and, as of 2008, continued “to be a highly prolific source,” who “has provided invaluable intelligence regarding explosives, al Qaeda, affiliated entities and their activities.”

“If released,” JTF-GTMO surmised, al Sawah “will possibly reestablish extremist associations, but is unlikely to do so as his cooperation with the US government may serve to identify detainee as a target for revenge by those associates.”

The Guantanamo Review Task Force, set up by President Obama in early 2009, disagreed with JTF-GTMO’s recommendation. In its final report, dated January 2010, the task force recommended al Sawah for prosecution.

 

(Snip)