Trader Tom Malinowski (D, NJ-07) has a dark past of apologizing for Afghanistan terrorists, Save Jerseyans. Recently, we told you about an LA Times interview from 2006 during which the future Democrat congressman argued that simply being a member of the Taliban wasn’t enough, in his opinion, to justify being detained at Guantanamo Bay.
But oh, it gets worse. Much worse.
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Check out this July 29, 2009 interview with Malinowski (then Washington advocacy director for a group called Human Rights Watch recorded by BigThink.com:
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“What are the chances that innocent people are in Guantanamo?” Malinowski is asked.
“I think that there’s a certainty that a lot of the people who were originally brought there were innocent of committing any crimes against the United States,” Malinowski replied. “They weren’t terrorists, they were folks who were in the wrong place [at] the wrong time—picked up by bounty hunters sold to US Forces.”
That’s quite a statement! The actual history, unsurprisingly, played out differently.
First, a little background…
“Since 2002, roughly 780 detainees have been held at the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Now, 39 remain,” The New York Times reported this June. “Of those, 12 have been charged with war crimes in the military commissions system — 10 are awaiting trial and two have been convicted. In addition, 17 detainees are held in indefinite law-of-war detention and are neither facing tribunal charges nor being recommended for release. And 10 are held in law-of-war detention but have been recommended for transfer with security arrangements to another country.”
Some of those 780 detainees were very bad dudes who played a role in terrorism, including in the events surrounding the 9/11 attacks. Some others were less dangerous but might’ve had information vital to the war effort. What’s fairly clear with the benefit of hindsight is that few, if any, landed in Cuba for being boyscouts.
What we do know: as the NY Post reported in August, “[t]wenty years after the 9/11 attacks, U.S. intelligence documents reveal 229 “rehabbed” former Gitmo detainees have returned to terrorism and killing Americans — and an alarming 66% of them have not been recaptured and are still at large.”
Four of five former Gitmo prisoners who President Obama exchanged for Bowe Bergdahl presently occupy top Taliban positions in Afghanistan.
But what about “the innocent” ones? Well, in 2015, Moussa Zemmouri (who, post-release, wrote a widely-cited book about having been an innocent detainee) was picked up by authorities and acussed of recruiting for Al-Qaeda.
I’m a limited government guy and a constitutionalist (unlike Tom Malinowski). Governmental exercises of power should always be scrutinized, and the Gitmo situation has been analyzed, investigated, litigated and debated to death for two decades. What’s scary is how guys with authority like Malinowski had – and continue to have – a shocking naivety where this country’s enemies are concerned including China and the Taliban.
Remember: Malinowski reportedly refused to intercede with the Biden Administration when the recent Afghanistan situation was salvagable, but he was more than willing to speak out on behalf of killers because, as with everything else, it suited his politics and political interests.
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