As Biden Releases Terror-Linked Detainees, Trump Vows ‘Hell’ for Hamas over Israeli Hostages
Following the Biden administration’s announcement that 11 Yemeni detainees would be released to Oman from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in addition to a possible prisoner swap with the Taliban, experts and lawmakers are expressing alarm that the decisions could lead to future terrorist attacks.
Reports surfaced Monday that the Middle Eastern country of Oman had agreed to settle the detainees, who were captured over suspected ties to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., which killed almost 3,000 Americans. In a statement from the Department of Defense, the reason given for releasing the detainees is to “reduc[e] the detainee population and ultimately clos[e] the Guantanamo Bay facility.”
While none of the 11 Yemeni men had been charged with a crime, two had served as former bodyguards for former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. Ahmed al-Alwi, one of the former bodyguards, “maintain[ed] an extremist mindset” according to a declassified document from 2016. The other former bodyguard, Anam al Sharabi, had trained in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks and “may have been associated with an aborted 9/11-style hijacking in Southwest Asia led by al-Qa’ida external operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,” according to a declassified file from 2020.
On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration is also planning to negotiate a prisoner swap with the Taliban, in which it would release Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, an alleged senior al-Qaeda aide, to the Taliban in exchange for three American prisoners.
During Tuesday’s edition of “Washington Watch,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins pointed out that past prisoner swaps of alleged terrorists have ended up resulting in terrorism. “The release of Yahya Sinwar in a 2011 prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas should serve as a stark example of the risk involved in freeing terrorists,” he noted. “Sinwar went on to become a senior Hamas leader and the chief architect of the October 7th, 2023 attack on Israel,” which claimed the lives of over 1,200 Israelis, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The attack also resulted in the taking of 254 hostages, including 12 Americans. Seventy-three of the hostages have since been killed, and 100 remain in captivity, including seven Americans. Sinwar was eventually killed by Israel Defense Forces last October.
Lawmakers like Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) are decrying not only the Biden administration’s strategy of releasing and swapping potential terrorists but also indirectly funding terrorist-sponsoring governments like the Taliban in Afghanistan. In a letter sent to President-elect Donald Trump last week, Burchett stated that the U.S. is likely funding the Taliban by giving millions of dollars to the country’s central bank through cash assistance programs as well as funds meant for humanitarian aid.
“[Y]ou’re familiar with NGOs, non-government organizations — they were created to do good things,” he noted on the show. “… [But] they’ve run astray. We’re sending this money as aid packages, and as you know, money is fungible. It can move. It’s like water in a glass. It moves to every corner of it and fills it and covers it. And so does money, and that’s exactly what we’re doing — and we’re describing it as aid. But we’ve found out … we are spending … around $40 million a week. It is getting to our enemy [the] Taliban. They’re sworn to hate and want to kill Christians and Jews.”
In addition, Burchett detailed how humanitarian aid funded by NGOs is taxed by the Taliban to the tune of almost $10 million. “[W]e know it’s happening, and they allow it. … I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in testimony and talked about it, and they’ll say, ‘Well, it’s just 1% or it’s just 2%.’ But they’re admitting [it]. I don’t care if it’s one penny. But as it turns out, we’re sending a few billion dollars — a few percentage points of that is a lot of money in East Tennessee.”
Meanwhile, President-elect Trump has vowed to take a more direct approach to confronting terrorism. During a press conference on Tuesday, Trump vowed that there would be consequences if Hamas did not release the Israeli hostages before his inauguration on January 20. “It will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone,” he remarked. “All hell will break out. I don’t have to say anymore, but that’s what it is.”
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.