DOD to Release Al Qaeda Operative with Ties to 9/11 Terrorist from Gitmo

[IceWizard]

DOD to Release Al Qaeda Operative with
Ties to 9/11 Terrorist from Gitmo







JANUARY 06, 2021
|
JUDICIAL WATCH



While the nation was preoccupied with holiday celebrations, an Al Qaeda
operative incarcerated at the U.S. military jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
as a “forever prisoner” was cleared to be released.
His name is Said Salih Said Nashir and a Department of Defense (DOD) file
says he has ties to 9/11 conspirator Walid Bin Attash and trained at the
infamous al-Faruq camp in Afghanistan to participate in terrorist operations
against U.S. forces in Karachi, Pakistan and inside the U.S. The document
labels Nashir a high risk likely to pose a threat to the U.S. and of high
intelligence value. He has been locked up at the compound on the
U.S. Naval station in southeast Cuba for nearly two decades. A few years
ago the Office of Military Commission’s parole board denied the Yemen
national release, determining that “continued law of war detention of
the detainee remains necessary to protect against a continuing significant
threat to the security of the United States.”

The ruling was issued because his terrorist connections run deep. Nashir,
who is in his 40s, served in the 55th Arab Brigade under the leadership of
Al Qaeda commander Nashwan Abd al-Razzaq Abd al-Baqi, his DOD file reveals.
He was deployed with other Al Qaeda personnel to attack U.S. and coalition
forces and has admitted training and living at Al Qaeda facilities.
An Al Qaeda facilitator named Marwan Mughil recruited Nashir to train in
Afghanistan for two months then return to Yemen. “Detainee gave Mughil
his passport and sometime later, Mughil sent detainee to Sanaa, YM to meet
Mughil’s associate, Abu Muad,” the military file states. In June 2001 Nashir
traveled to an Al Qaeda safe house in Kandahar known as the al-Nibras
Guesthouse via the United Arab Emirates and Karachi with three other men
from Yemen. Al Qaeda leadership at al-Nibras “issued detainee an AK-47
assault rifle and deployed him to guard an airport located 30 minutes south
of Kandahar,” the U.S. military document says. After completing his terrorist
training at al-Faruq, Nashir returned to the al-Nibras Guesthouse where he
remained until September 2001.

Once considered too dangerous to ever be released, the Gitmo “forever prisoner”
also hid in caves along with fellow jihadists in an Afghan valley for 10 days and
received $1,000 from an Al Qaeda official before trying to head back to Yemen
via Iran. However, Nashir returned to Karachi because he was afraid Iranian
police would capture him. He was arrested in 2002 when police and intelligence
agencies in Pakistan raided three Al Qaeda residences in Karachi. After a lengthy
“firefight” with Pakistani security forces five Arabs—including Nashir—were captured.
All were members of a special terrorist team deployed to attack targets in Karachi,
including hotels frequented by American soldiers. The terrorists were turned over
to U.S. forces at the Karachi Airport before being transferred to Bagram Airfield,
the largest American base in Afghanistan. The reasons listed for Nashir’s transfer
to Guantanamo are to provide information on the al-Faruq camp where he trained
for several months, various safe houses in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran and
Al Qaeda recruiter Marwan Mughil. The file also reveals that a laptop hard drive
recovered from the safe house that Nashir shared with other terrorists
“contained information that could have been used in targeting aircraft, to support
hijacking and other terrorist operations.”

Nashir’s extensive record explains why the Military Commission’s parole board,
known as the Periodic Review Secretariat (PRS), refused his release appeal a few
years ago. In a document posted on the commission’s website, the PRS writes this:
“In making this determination, the Board considered the detainee’s past ties with
al-Qaida’s external operations planners and senior leadership, including 9/11
conspirator Walid Bin Attash.” The PRS also lists the detainee’s lack of credibility,
candor, and inconsistency in responses. “His recent expressions of continued support
for jihad against legitimate military or government targets and his statements
celebrating the idea of Muslims killing invaders, including continued interest in
seeing footage of past al Qaida attacks, were also considered by the Board, as
well as his lack of detail regarding a plan for the future and his susceptibility to
recruitment.”

It is not clear what changed in the last few years while the Al Qaeda fighter sat
in a maximum-security cell at Gitmo, but the PRS did an about face. In the latest
assessment granting Nashir release, the military parole board writes that continued
detention is no longer necessary to protect against the significant threat he once
posed to the security of the United States. Here is why: “Detainee’s low level of
training and lack of leadership in Al Qaeda or the Taliban” as well as “his efforts
to improve himself while in detention, to include taking numerous courses at Guantanamo.”
The panel also found that Nashir has family support and a “credible plan for
supporting himself in the event of transfer.” The board recommends “robust security
assurances to include monitoring, travel restrictions and integration support.”
That is unlikely. Judicial Watch has for years reported on the long list of prisoners
released from Gitmo who return to terrorist causes. Among them is an Al Qaeda
leader that the U.S. government put on a global terrorist list with a $5 million
reward for information on his whereabouts after releasing him.