The curious case of Juma al-Dosari

[paulthompson]

I wanted to post this entry I just made for the 9/11 Timeline here because this case seems to be extremely obscure, even in the blogosphere. And it makes an important, yet little known point: the US not only keeps many innocent people locked up in prisons like Guantanamo, but they often let the obviously guilty ones go free.

July 16, 2007: Al-Qaeda US Recruiter Inexplicably Released from Guantanamo, Set Free in Saudi Arabia

The Defense Department releases 16 Saudis being held in Guantanamo prison and returns them to Saudi Arabia. One of them is Juma al-Dosari, a dual Bahraini/Saudi citizen, and apparently a long-time al-Qaeda operative. (Gulf Daily News, 7/17/2007)
Extensive Al-Qaeda Links - Al-Dosari was known as “the closer” for recruiting new al-Qaeda operatives, and he recruited the “Lackawanna Six” in New York State while he lived in the US from 1999 to 2001. According to his 2006 Guantanamo Administrative Review Board evidence review, there is a long list of evidence tying him to al-Qaeda since he was 16-years old in 1989, just one year after al-Qaeda was founded. He fought with militants in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Tajikistan. He was arrested in Kuwait and then again in Saudi Arabia for suspected involvement in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombings, but released without charge both times. An unnamed source claims he was involved in the 2000 USS Cole bombing. He was arrested during the battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in late 2001, and then sent to Guantanamo. US intelligence intercepted communications between him and Osama bin Laden’s son Saad bin Laden, and also him and al-Qaeda leader Khallad bin Attash.
(PBS Frontline, 10/16/2003; PBS Frontline, 10/16/2003; US Department of Defense, 9/13/2006)
Release Unnoticed, Unexplained - Al-Dosari’s 2007 release goes almost entirely unnoticed by the US media, despite previous articles and books discussing his recruitment of the “Lackawanna Six.” In June 2008, retired FBI agent Peter Ahearn will comment to the Buffalo News that he is baffled that the US government never criminally prosecuted al-Dosari, and then released him. “We felt strongly that we could try him in Buffalo on criminal charges, but the Justice Department declined.” Ahearn is upset that al-Dosari “is walking around as a free man in Saudi Arabia.”
(Buffalo News, 6/22/2008)
"Rehabilitated" in Saudi Arabia - Upon arriving in Saudi Arabia, al-Dosari is admitted into a “soft approach” government rehabilitation program designed to prevent militants from relapsing back into violent extremism. He is given a car, psychological therapy, a monthly allowance, help to find a job, and help to get married. He had attempted to commit suicide over a dozen times while in Guantanamo. But in 2008, it will be reported that he is doing well in Saudi Arabia, with a new wife and a new job. He now says Osama bin Laden “used my religion and destroyed its reputation.” (Los Angeles Times, 12/21/2007; Gulf News, 2/22/2008)

Here he is, being interviewed by the CBC in Saudi Arabia recently:



Keep in mind that the "Lackawanna Six" that he recruited were generally sentenced to about ten years in prison each, even though their only crime was attending an six week al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and then dropping out before finishing the most basic course. Cheney and Rumsfeld actually wanted the entire group to be declared "enemy combatants" and lock them away permanently. You'd think the Bush administration would be all over al-Dosari like white on rice, as hyping his case would play on fears of al-Qaeda operating in the US, which is one of Bush's usual themes.

Even worse, in Saudi Arabia, al-Dosari can basically operate with impunity if he decides to go back to his militant ways. I don't know of a single case of any suspected militant being extradited or even abducted/renditioned out of Saudi Arabia. Some of al-Qaeda's most important leaders, like Wael Hamza Julaidan (one of the dozen or so founders of al-Qaeda), continue to operate and fund-raise with impunity in Saudi Arabia to this day. You've probably never heard of Julaidan because he has ties to rich and important Saudis and the US government doesn't want to ruffle feathers with our main oil suppliers.

Al-Dosari is not the only case like this. Check out this guy, for instance:

Late November 2001: Satellite Phone Ruse Aids Bin Laden’s Escape
As US forces close in on Tora Bora, bin Laden’s escape is helped by a simple ruse. A loyal bodyguard named Abdallah Tabarak takes bin Laden’s satellite phone and goes in one direction while bin Laden goes in the other. It is correctly assumed that the US can remotely track the location of the phone. Tabarak is eventually captured with the phone while bin Laden apparently escapes. Tabarak is later put in the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Interrogation of him and others in Tora Bora confirm the account. (Washington Post, 1/21/2003) The US will consider Tabarak such a high-value prisoner that at one point he will be the only Guantanamo prisoner that the Red Cross will be denied access to. However, in mid-2004 he will be released and returned to his home country of Morocco, then released by the Moroccan government by the end of the year. Neither the US nor the Moroccan government will offer any explanation for his release. The Washington Post will call the release of the well-known and long-time al-Qaeda operative an unexplained “mystery.” (Washington Post, 1/30/2006)


It's very strange. According to some reports, as many of 90% of the people held in Guantanamo are probably innocent of any ties to Islamist militancy. Yet many of the completely innocent stay there. The New York Times recently mentioned that the US government has definitively concluded that at least 30 people still in Guantanamo are completely innocent, and yet they're continuing to hold them. Meanwhile, the likes of al-Dosari and Tabarak are let go. The more I learn, the more obvious it seems to me that the way the "war on terrorism" is being run is a farce.

[The Magistrate]

1. On The Face Of It, Sir

It would seem likely both men mentioned are informers, the first possibly even before his incarceration, the second probably turned during captivity. What worth their services might be at present is questionable, of course....

[paulthompson]

2. It's possible...

...that they were informants, but I doubt it. Why? Both of them were considered leaders of the resistance in Guantanamo, rallying the other prisoners to oppose their jailers at every turn, and converting new recruits (since most of the people in Guantanamo actually weren't militant types). Tabarak in particular was considered the de facto top guy in the heirarchy of prisoners, leading the internal resistance. So if they're informers, that would raise a whole other set of questions - you wouldn't want them to be THAT good. As a recent McClatchy article shows, Guantanamo turned into a giant fiasco because it was made up mostly of innocent people who turned into radical militants after being tortured by their captors and then converted by the few true militants there.

Which raises the possibility that the US got rid of these guys simply because they were such a pain in the ass to continue holding. But that wouldn't explain why they weren't simply taken out of Guantanamo and given a regular trial, or put in solitary confinement. In fact, the US government wouldn't even allow any testimony or evidence about al-Dosari to be used in the Lackawanna Six trial, even though he was the key al-Qaeda link.

Another possibility that I think is more likely is that these guys knew things that were damning to the US, so the US was very keen on having them NOT ever testify in a court room. For instance, al-Dosari fought in Bosnia and Kosovo when the US was on the same side as al-Qaeda in fighting the Serbs, and there was some collaboration betwen the US and al-Qaeda in both those wars (see my timeline for lots of detailed documented evidence on that).

But that's just the thing: "real" al-Qaeda types often know inconvenient truths, and putting them on trial could be embarrassing. Whereas the wanna-bes, fringe characters, and innocents don't. In my opinion, most of the post-9/11 trials involve one of these latter groups, while the "real" al-Qaeda are kept far from the public eye once they're captured, if at all possible. For instance, al-Qaeda leader Anas al-Liby was apparently captured in 2002 and has been kept as a "ghost prisoner" in a secret CIA prison ever since. The interesting thing about him is that British intelligence hired him in 1996 to perform an assassination and then let him live openly in Britain for four years after that. Needless to say, we're never ever going to see a trial of Anas al-Liby.

Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi is another similar example. He's the al-Qaeda leader that the US tortured, and then falsely confessed links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. That was used as a justification for the Iraq war and Colin Powell mentioned him in his big UN speech. In 2006, when most of the top captured al-Qaeda leaders were sent to Guantanamo to eventually be tried before a military tribunal, al-Libi was quietly returned to Libya and set free. It would be hugely embarrassing for him to go on trial and churn up all the stuff about his false confessions.

I could site many more similar cases. I think, in general, when the Bush administration has been faced with the choice of "have a trial that will make us look bad" vs. "let the killer go free," they choose let the killer go free.

[The Magistrate]

5. Getting Rid Of People Who 'Know Inconvenient Truths', Sir

Is generally accomplished by having them wake up dead, not by setting them free to roam.

[leftchick]

3. the US government doesn't want to ruffle feathers with our main oil suppliers.

There is that but I believe it is a combination. When I read the McClatchy series I realized what I had always suspected was true. The US government is fomenting more terrorists in Guantanamo and other prisons to keep the war on terror a constant theme while they reap the spoils of war.

I find it interesting too that no Saudis have been put on trial while there were mostly Saudis on the planes on Sept. 11. It really is unforgivable that we do not have real investigative journalists in the country who would report on this obvious and blatant conspiracy.

Thank you paul!

[annabanana]

4. And what are the family connections of these men?

The Saudi Kingdom is MUCH more interested in protecting friends of the family than they are in any kind of actual, you know.. justice.