The Latest - Terrorist Detainees

Terrorist Detainees Latest Articles

25th April 2012 – The Weekly Standard

A Desperate ‘Longshot’

Thomas Joscelyn

Some in the Obama administration are desperate to jumpstart peace negotiations with the Taliban in advance of NATO’s summit in Chicago next month. more...

20th April 2012 – The Long War Journal

2 Uighur Gitmo Detainees Transferred to El Salvador

Thomas Joscelyn

The Department of Defense announced the transfer of two Uighur detainees from Guantanamo to El Salvador yesterday. The two detainees were not named in the DoD's press release. more...

20th April 2012 – The Ottawa Citizen

Government was Right Not to Rush Omar Khadr Home

Sheryl Saperia

This week, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced that Toronto-born terrorist Omar Khadr could be brought back to Canada. The government has been criticized for not moving faster to repatriate Khadr. more...

20th April 2012 – The Weekly Standard

Selective Reporting on Guantanamo Transfers

Thomas Joscelyn

The Department of Defense announced on Thursday that two Guantanamo detainees had been transferred to El Salvador. The DoD did not name them in its press release, but the New York Times identified the men as two Uighurs (Muslims from western China). more...

18th April 2012 – The Long War Journal

Ex-Gitmo Detainee Delivers Ransom Demands for Kidnapped Saudi

Thomas Joscelyn

On March 28, a Saudi diplomat named Abdullah al Khalidi was kidnapped by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in the port city of Aden, Yemen. AQAP's gunmen captured al Khalidi, who served as Saudi Arabia's deputy consul in Aden. more...

2nd April 2012 – The Weekly Standard

Al Qaeda’s Network in Iran

Benjamin Weinthal, Thomas Joscelyn

An al Qaeda cell slated to take part in one of the final plots ordered by Osama bin Laden made use of an Iran-based terror network that, according to the Obama administration, operates “under an agreement between al Qaeda and the Iranian government.” more...

24th March 2012 – National Review Online

Don’t Stay the Course

In this tense campaign season, al-Qaeda is very much in the front of the Obama administration’s mind. In fact, administration officials can’t remind you often enough that Barack rubbed out Osama — which you may see as a no-brainer... more...

8th March 2012 – National Review Online

Obama Administration to Congress: You’re Irrelevant

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta gave testimony in the Senate yesterday that was just breathtaking: asserting that the Obama administration believes it can go to war against Syria by obtaining permission from an international tribunal more...

6th March 2012 – The Weekly Standard

The Associated Press’s Gitmo Gotcha

Thomas Joscelyn

How bad is the press’s reporting on Guantanamo? Many examples come to mind, but the most recent one is this Associated Press article by Kimberly Dozier. Titled “US officials: Not so many Guantanamo re-offenders,” Dozier reports on the Director of National Intelligence’s (DNI’s) latest estimate of recidivism by former Guantanamo detainees. more...

5th March 2012 – The Long War Journal

Latest Gitmo Recidivist Statistics Released

Thomas Joscelyn

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has released new summary statistics on the recidivism of former Guantanamo detainees. At present, 167 ex-Gitmo detainees are either "confirmed" or "suspected" of reengaging in "terrorist or insurgent activities" after their release. more...

1st March 2012 – Scripps Howard News Service

War Crimes and Punishment

Clifford D. May

“To the justice of the firing squad!” That was the toast proposed by Stalin to Roosevelt and Churchill over dinner in 1943 in Tehran. They were meeting for the first time and the discussion had turned to the fate of Nazi leaders following Germany’s defeat. more...

1st March 2012 – National Review Online

Releasing the Blind Sheikh?

The Arabic-language newspaper al-Arabiya reported on Tuesday that the Obama administration has offered to release Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman to Egypt. Abdel Rahman is the infamous “Blind Sheikh” who was convicted in 1995 for masterminding a terrorist war against the United States... more...

25th February 2012 – National Review Online

Why Apologize to Afghanistan?

The New York Times reports that President Obama has sent a formal letter of apology to Afghanistan’s ingrate president, Hamid Karzai, for the burning of Korans at a U.S. military base. more...

24th February 2012 – National Review Online

The Sharia Court of Pennsylvania — the Transcript

I have made a transcript of the Pennsylvania case in which state judge Mark Martin, a Muslim convert and U.S. Army reservist who served in Iraq, relied on a sharia law defense (as well as some evidentiary contortions) to dismiss an open-and-shut harassment case against a Muslim man who assaulted an atheist activist at a Halloween parade. more...

6th February 2012 – The Weekly Standard

Strategic Retreat

Bill Roggio, Thomas Joscelyn

The killing of Osama bin Laden was a monumental tactical success in the war against al Qaeda. For millions, bin Laden had come to symbolize American weakness. more...

19th January 2012 – National Review Online

Ron Paul: Wrong on the Taliban

Ron Paul knows even less about the history of our enemies than he does about their proper treatment under the Constitution. He actually interrupted Monday night’s Republican candidates’ debate so he could interject the following: more...

18th January 2012 – National Review Online

Candidates and Combatants

Monday night’s debate featured an exchange between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum regarding the treatment of American citizens who join with our jihadist enemies to make war against our country. more...

17th January 2012 – The Long War Journal

Algerian Court Sentences Ex-Gitmo Detainee to 3 Years in Prison

Thomas Joscelyn

An Algerian court sentenced an ex-Guantanamo detainee to three years in prison on Monday for his involvement with an extremist group. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison sentence for Nadji Abdelaziz, according to Agence France Presse. more...

11th January 2012 – The Weekly Standard

The Stories Ex-Gitmo Detainees Tell

Thomas Joscelyn

Ten years ago this week, the U.S. government opened the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility. And three years ago this month, shortly after his inauguration, President Barack Obama ordered Guantanamo shuttered within one year. more...

4th January 2012 – The Long War Journal

White House Denies Deal to Release Taliban Leader

Thomas Joscelyn

The Guardian (UK) reported yesterday, citing anonymous sources, that the Obama administration had already decided to release several senior Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo. more...

Experts

David B. Rivkin

Senior Fellow

Thomas Joscelyn

Senior Fellow

Events

22nd February 2013 - 9:30 AM

Policy Under Fire: How Should the US Handle the Non-Criminal Detention of Violent Non-State Actors?

A Conversation with Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Dawit Giorgis, Raha Wala and Ben Wittes

Militant fighters have been captured during the war in Mali. This raises questions about whether the American and European positions on preventive detention rest on shaky foundations. Does the fact that Western nations don't do preventive detentions in some way encourage killing rather than capturing enemy forces?

15th October 2012 - 10:15 PM

Is Al-Qaeda Dead? An Experts Debate

In Collaboration with the New America Foundation

While some counterterrorism analysts and officials say that U.S. military efforts over the past 11 years have resulted in the defeat of al-Qaeda, others argue that the terrorist organization is more durable than that. The successes won by the CIA drone program in Pakistan’s tribal regions and the symbolic killing of Osama bin Laden might be tempered by the growing strength of al-Qaeda's affiliates in countries such as Yemen, Somalia, and Libya. On the other hand, many point out that al-Qaeda has failed to carry out a large-scale terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11.