We were told that the five terrorists recently released from Guantanamo in exchange for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl would be held under house arrest in Qatar for a year. And, that Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani assured the U.S. that he would maintain surveillance over their activities.
“The Guantanamo Five” are welcomed to Qatar after their release in exchange for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. (Afghanistan-analysts.org.)
Yet it was reported that they would be permitted to go to the mall and to movie theaters; part of what was termed a “loose” house arrest. The Daily Beast reported that Qatar would “allow the U.S. government to monitor the senior Taliban figures.” This news has spurred me to write the following caution.
Open Letter to the Qatar Emir and U.S. Intelligence Officials:
In March 2011 Russian intelligence warned the U.S. about someone with links to militant Islamists – Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The FBI interviewed him and had his name placed on the customs database to trigger an alert every time he left or re-entered the U.S.
Three months later they closed the investigation. In September 2011 the Russians again warned of this individual, but misspelled his name – “Tsarnayev” instead of “Tsarnaev.” So, when Tsarnaev travelled to and from Moscow in 2012, the note for mandatory arrest of Tsarnayev failed to snare Tsarnaev.
In April 2013, Tsarnaev and his brother Dzhokhar killed three and injured some 200 others in the Boston Marathon bombing.
Let this be a lesson. The five terrorists you are responsible for have names with unusual spelling – Mohammad Fazi, Mohammad Nabi, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Mullah Norullah Nori and Khairullah Khairkhwa.
Down the road, I don’t want to read that Khairullah Chairkhwa successfully carried out a bombing somewhere outside Qatar.
