Posted by
Defend America on Saturday, February 06, 2010 7:39:54 PM
Brennan is Wrong on Batarfi
The president's assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism goes after Rep. Wolf, but doesn't have his facts straight.
February 2, 2010 3:14 PM
Jake Tapper of ABC News has obtained a copy of a letter John
Brennan, the assistant to President Obama for homeland security and
counterterrorism, sent to congressional leaders Monday night. Brennan
defends the administration’s efforts to close Guantanamo in the letter.
While conceding that the number of former detainees who are “confirmed”
or “suspected” of returning to terrorism has risen to 20 percent,
Brennan says that all of the recidivists were released during the Bush
years. Brennan goes on to argue that the Obama administration has made
“significant improvements to the detainee review process,” implying
that it is being more careful in determining which detainees can be
transferred or released than its predecessor.
In the middle of his letter, Brennan inserts this curious paragraph:
During the briefing on January 13, Representative Wolf made
allegations that one detainee repatriated to Yemen had been involved in
weapons of mass destruction. As it has done in every case, the task
force thoroughly reviewed all information available to the government
about this individual and concluded that there is no basis for the
assertions Representative Wolf made during this session. I am attaching
a classified addendum to this letter that addresses these concerns
directly.
Brennan is referring to a Yemeni named Ayman Batarfi, who the
administration repatriated to Yemen in December of last year. (I’ve
written about Batarfi previously. See, for example, here and here.)
Brennan’s characterization of Batarfi is surely wrong. Congressman
Wolf got it right. And you don’t need classified information to see
that Wolf has the better of the argument.
The key is Batarfi’s involvement in al Qaeda’s efforts to develop
anthrax. Intelligence authorities at Guantanamo consistently and
repeatedly found that Batarfi played a role in al Qaeda’s anthrax
program while working for al Wafa – a “charity” that is really a front
for al Qaeda. (Al Wafa has been designated an al Qaeda entity by both
the U.S. and the UN.) During a hearing at Gitmo, Batarfi
conceded he worked for al Wafa.
http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/brennan-wrong-batarfi