Obama policy setting troop killers free in Iraq
Kiernan Lalor writes in the Washington Examiner that the Obama Administration’s indecision over Guantanamo is setting free non-Iraqi murderers in Iraq. he tells the story of two Marines, John McKenna and Michael Glover who were killed on patrol in Fallujah five years go by Muhammad Awwad Ahmad.
Recently, the families of the fallen learned from the Defense Department U.S. forces turned Ahmad over to Iraqi authorities in June 2010, and that an Iraqi court set him free four months later.
Lalor explains the difference between the Bush and Obama Administrations’ policies that enabled Ahmad to escape any real punishment;
Under the Iraq Security Agreement signed by the Bush administration in 2008, all detainees left in Iraq by the end of 2011 have to be turned over to the Iraqis. For the most part, the Bush White House was giving the pickpockets and common criminals over to the Iraqis but moving dangerous terrorists who had killed Americans to places like Guantanamo Bay to be held for military trials.
The Obama administration wanted to shutter Gitmo and believed that enemy combatants captured on overseas battlefields deserved federal civilian trials. When American public opinion thwarted this policy, Obama found himself boxed into a self-created ideological corner. Rather than adjust the flawed position, the administration began turning over to the Iraqis even non-Iraqi terrorists who killed Americans in Iraq.
Such is the “leadership” of this administration. Their inability to make effective policy undoes the sacrifice of American troops around the world.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War
You know, last time I checked, the best way to deal with prisoners on the battlefield was to not take any. If someone shoots at you, then you put a “controlled pair” into them. Then, no more worry about them being set free to shoot again.
On 16 August 2006 Captain McKeena was killed by a sniper while trying to save Lance Corporal Glover’s life, who had been hit by the same shooter. The shooter, Awwad, was captured. Hearing nothing more about Awwad, McKenna’s dad wrote to the Secreary of Defense early in 2010 asking about the case status. A week or so before the 5th anniversary of the deaths of McKenna and Glover, he got his answer.
“Our Provost Marshall’s Office in Iraq has reported that, consistent with our legal obligations under the Iraq Security Agreement, Ahmad was transferred to the Government of Iraq control in June 2010 pursuant to an Iraqi criminal warrant,” Lietzau added. “According to documents from the Iraq Minister of Justice, Ahmad’s case was reviewed by an Iraqi court, and (he) was released on Oct. 25, 2010, because of a lack of evidence.”
Blame it on the SOFA – “In the event the United States Forces detain or arrest persons as authorized by this Agreement or Iraqi law, such persons must be handed over to competent Iraqi authorities within 24 hours from the time of their detention or arrest.”
Yeah they sold us down the river on SOFA….there was/is so much corruption within the Iraqi system from the police on up.
This is so typical of the stupidity of Washington. I swear, it’s been generations since they’ve been able to see beyond the tips of their noses.
@4 – That’s not even the half of it. There’s a reason we can’t share much intelligence withdraw the MoD, andreasons why we are not terribly successful in interdicting Shia VEOs.
By the way, Captain McKenna was postumously awarded the Silver Star for his actions in combat on 16 August.
@6 should read “with the MoD”……….Damn Droid.
Well… We’ve done our best it’s their country to fuck up now.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again; The phucking Left wants their new edition of Vietnam, their bound and determined to see it through and phuck the rest.
How is the SOFA a product of the left?
My son was there when Capt McKenna and Lcpl Glover were killed. Two months earlier Capt McKenna had led a QRF to medevac my son after being wounded. Upon learning that these Iraqi miscreants released this scumbag my son was livid but not surprised.
#3 Hey CI, I agree with you in principle that the SOFA, it is horribly flawed and it has unnessarily tied our hands. I have no problem with the concept of SOFA(which we also have with many other nations) but this particular treaty was hammered out under political duress(Domestic and Iraqi), that made a realistic objectives nearly unatainable. It is a highly flawed document to say he least.
That said I don’t think SOFA is the problem here. This was a foreign terrorist, captured before SOFA was signed, and the article implies other nonIraqi terrorists were sent to Gitmo PostSOFA. This looks like the administration just painting itself into a corner and subtley trying to release these characters with no one being the wiser.
I can agree there was a LOT to the SOFA that could (and SHOULD) be reexamined, but we have clear evidence that perhaps this administration wants to appease too many “bases” You have to look tough on Terror, so there’s a lot of drone attacks, which, despite success, have actually backfired a little because it’s pissing pretty much everyone overseas off, also there’s not really “follow up” You have to look like you’re giving Due process: No more Rendition, Waterboarding or GITMO. . . only the Rendition can still be a “secret” the Waterboarding actually DID deliver actionable intel, which Obama used to kill UBL, AND the second he tried to bring GITMO detainees to NYC for trial (which was an absolutely boneheaded option) the public outrage essentially made it impossible. When he tried to simply move them to Illinois, the prisons that they WOULD have gone into turned out to be a bit. . .crooked, also public outrage. you got a Nobel Peace Prize (mostly for being not-Bush) so you might actually want to create peace, and end this war (singular people!) to an end. plus after the war is over, you can use all that money to buy votes or come up with some sort of new horribly wasteful program. Lastly people are getting pretty pissed off at you. Time to so something, really ANYTHING to get as much as possible off your plate and on to anyone else. Obama has to a large part followed the Carter model, BUT being involved in active conflict, he can’t really take all the “moral” stands that Carter tried to. I’m not sure he wants to win excepting that it would make him look good. Really, its hard to tell what’s on his mind, it seems like there’s so much going on there, so many conflicting thought processes and ideologies that his actions would *naturally* seem as confused you’d think. He’s learning (the hard way) that it’s really tough to be an ideologue AND the president. Honestly I think it might be a bit late for him to recover. His latest… Read more »
To Doc Bailey, “I can agree there was a LOT to the SOFA that could (and SHOULD) be reexamined, but we have clear evidence that perhaps this administration wants to appease too many “bases”. I concur. See above.
“You have to look tough on Terror, so there’s a lot of drone attacks, which, despite success, have actually backfired a little because it’s pissing pretty much everyone overseas off…” But what DOESN”T piss these people off? My response has always to reverse the question. They should worry about pissing us off. If they don’t want us in their backyard, then they, state and nonstate actors alike, should reexamine their policies.
“…our enemies also there’s not really “follow up”. This is the key. I don’t expect a full fledged campaign thesis, ready and planned to execute. Though I would like to have some kind of idea what the objective is we’re attempting to attain. Whether we acomplish it tomorrow or years from now.
Nearly every success of this administration has its foundations in the last. From intel collection, detainee policy, terror targeting, or the military skills needed currently in Afghanistan or Africa. The irony is the President and his allies opposed them or inhibated there implementation. Its when they encounter new challenges or problems, they tend flounder.
@13 – I’ve been trying to ascertain Ahmad’s nationality. Do you have a source?
@12. There are always official explanations for these types of unfathomable acts. The problem is that none of the explanations make sense when the result is, as here, the deaths of good people. I hope that your son is okay and that he can send his justifiable anger packin’ if he has not already done so.
#16 My reading of the article implies that he was a foreign fighter.
@18 – I see the implication, but haven’t seen anything in open source that says definitively. If I remember, I’ll check at work tomorrow.
#19 No your right it doesn’t directly, but it lumps him in with others who clearly are foreigners.