Michelle Malkin:
Is President Obama sleeping well on his Hawaiian holiday? I can think of many families of American soldiers who might not be enjoying the same bliss right now. That’s because 2014 opens with alarming news that the Afghan government will free an estimated 650 prisoners from a Bagram detention facility — including scores involved in deadly attacks on our men and women in uniform.
The White House handed over control of the jihadi-clogged prison to the Afghan government last spring. Some 3,000 notorious Taliban and al Qaeda killers call the jail home. Surprise, surprise: After the Obama administration supposedly secured “private assurances” that no dangerous criminal operatives would be released, U.S. officials are now balking that the agreement has been broken. Everyone, put on your shocked faces.
An anonymous U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal this week: “We are concerned that 88 people who have blood on their hands — Afghan and coalition blood — would be turned loose, but more important, that an agreement that we have with the Afghan government is being violated.” The New York Times reports that Muslim terrorists who trained teen suicide bombers and planted IEDs at schools are among the lucky thugs slated for release. “These are guys that are tied directly to killing and trying to kill our forces and Afghan forces,” an American military official told the New York Times. “This is an issue of deep concern. It is serious.” Cue the “UNDERSTATEMENT” klieg lights.
Members of Afghanistan’s own parliament are decrying the lax review process and dangerous unilateral decisions of a “Bagram Inmates’ Assessment Committee” established by presidential decree. Afghan senator Dawood Hasas told the Afghanistan Times: “Among the released prisoners from Bagram jail, many were murder convicts, and release of notorious prisoners would not be in the national interests.”
