Armageddon is here with us before time. Two terror suspects, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby are terrorizing Ghanaians not with bombs or machetes but with their presence in Ghana.
Social media, traditional media, every available discussion space in Ghana has been taken by the arrival of the two ex-GITMO detainees. The discussion has been heated with no middle ground. It is either you are for government and the US or against them.
Fanatics of government are at their best beating hard and loud the gong-gong about the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality and explaining why Mahama’s decision is the wisest. President Mahama himself is suddenly sounding more religious than the pope preaching about compassion and mercy and justifying why this weird security impaired decision should be taken in an election year.
But behind this sermon is a hugely hypocritical ideologue from the US government, a naive posturing from a willing puppet and a combination of half truths and outright lies from both.
I love Americans because they love their country. Every decision each leader takes is in the best interest of the citizens. Unfortunately, i can’t say same for the leaders in Ghana. This whole GITMO repatriation policy is a well crafted policy meant to protect the American citizens. I have no doubt in my mind that the US government is thoroughly committed to the fight against terrorism but they are even more committed to ensuring that, if at all there is any future act of terror, it will be far from its citizens and its interest. That is a singular act of patriotism you cannot take away from any American leader. Can we say same for our Ghanaian leaders?
It beats my imagination how a Ghanaian leader can accept to take in two terrorists, in an election year of all years, house them, feed them, cloth them, with stipends from the US government we are told and still have the courage to tell his citizens that these two terrorists are as innocent as his 20-year-old son and needed refuge. His argument is that the two have not been found guilty by any court and that they were unjustifiably arrested and detained for 14 years by the US. But I am sorry Mr president we all know this is not true.
Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby were no innocent school boys playing football on the fields of Afghanistan. They were not saints praying in the mosque somewhere in Afghanistan or studying in the universities of Afghanistan when they were arrested by the US. These two were fighters for the late most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden. They were terrorists. In fact the Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh in an interview with radio Gold on January 12, 2016, told Ghanaians that these two are “footsoldiers of Al-qaeda.” We all know who a footsoldier is in Ghana’s politics. They are not the most powerful people in our politics but they are the most dangerous.
On the morning when the Foreign Minister said the two were footsoldiers of Al qaeda, that same morning, our president told Ghanaians in a press encounter that these boys are innocent souls. How do we reconcile the two? Who is telling the truth here?
Even more curious is the arrangement for this transfer. Whilst the Americans, the ones who built the Guatanamo Bay, detained these terrorists, subjected them to the most inhumane treatment to force information out of them thought it wise to consult Congress, by inference the people of America on what to do with these detainees, our government, the president, who is receiving these detainees does not think that the people of Ghana matter and need to know about these arrangement.
His explanation and that of the Foreign Minister is that this decision is a matter of national security. And with an Executive presidency, such issues are best taken by the president and his security appointees alone without any input by the people of Ghana and by inference the Parliament of Ghana.
Whilst our president is singing the praises of these suspects and comparing them to his 20 year-old-son, this is what the Americans had to say about them, at least one of them- Bin Atif.
The US Department of Defense in 2007 assessed Bin Atif as a “high risk detainee who is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interest and allies.” He once threatened to slit the throat of US citizens if he is released and is known to have served as a fighter in the UBL’S 55th Arab Brigade and travelled to Northern Afghanistan and fought on front lines in Konduz
Sarah Stealy, Information Officer US Embassy (Accra)
Even in detention, the violence in Bin Atif was demonstrated. In 2007 he led a detainee unrest at Guantanamo Bay and has as many as 125 reports of disciplinary infraction including assault against him. This is the personality the president of Ghana would have us believe is an innocent soul.
Interestingly just when America decided that the Guantanamo Bay is an albatross on its neck and has to be dissolved, it quickly reassessed these detainees and gave Bin Atif a new title, a “low risk detainee”, one that would resonate with any country, any president willing and ready to accept him. Our country, our president accepted him on our behalf and came singing the same song to the press that these people did not play any operational role in Al-qaeda activities.
Exactly how 14 years of detention, water boarding and other grave human right abuses will transform a terrorist into an innocent man is something only our president can explain.
Interestingly it is turning out that our government took this decision without apprising itself of all the facts available.
In an interview with 3FM, an Accra based radio station on Thursday, Hanna Tetteh said the US government did not provide the Ghana government with the 2007 US Department of Defense assessment of Bin Atif and that she saw that document on facebook after the controversy broke.
For the avoidance of doubt this is exactly what she said: “Those were the documents that i have seen floating around on Social media. [It] is not part of the documentations that was made available to us for which reason i referred it back to the US embassy. They are going to respond to it. That document was not made available to us at the time we were making our assessment.”
So the question is on what basis did our government accept to take these two terrorists into the country? What independent checks did our security chiefs make on these two before advising the president to accept them or they just fed on a one sided thoroughly massaged information provided by their US counterparts ? If after months of discussion our security chiefs did not know about this information but it took days for ordinary Ghanaian citizens to find the information and post it on social media can we trust these same security chiefs to defend us in case of any terror attacks?
I end with a quote by South Carolina Senator Tim Scott to the Associated press. “Why in the world you would bring these enemy combatants to domestic soil is mind-boggling. This is absolutely nothing short of gambling national security to keep a campaign promise?
I also ask: Why in the world will President Mahama bring in two terrorists in an election year, knowing how volatile election years are and how vulnerable our security situation is, when our security is struggling to deal with armed robberies, politically motivated killings and other security issues?
So who do you trust now? US, Mahama, Hanna Tetteh or your conscience?
Source- Myjoyonline
