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It has emerged that the decision by the Mahama-led administration to allow two suspected Al- Qaeda terrorists to be hosted in Ghana for the next two years was for a promise.

According to Catherine Herridge, the Chief Intelligence Correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington DC, the gesture was certainly for a “promise.”

“…Here is a thing the people are missing, these countries are not taking them out of the goodness of the heart, they are taking them because they have been promised something in the future by the US…,” she stated.

She said the suspected terrorists are dangerous a million times to the United States.

The government stunned many Ghanaians, when it announced last week that Ghana would for the next two years host the terrorists who were previously being held at Guantanamo Prisons in the United States.

Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby are being offered humanitarian assistance in Ghana under a deal reportedly signed by the Mahama administration and US authorities.

The two inmates are the first of a group of 17 detainees expected to be transferred out of Guantanamo Bay that includes “multiple bad guys” and “Al Qaeda followers,” according to Fox News sources.

With the announcement of the transfer, 105 detainees remain there. Both detainees spent close to 14 years at Guantanamo.

While the identities of all those scheduled for transfer are closely held, Fox News says it includes “multiple bad guys … not taxi drivers and cooks.”

This is a reference to the administration’s transfer of Ibrahim al Qosi to Sudan in 2012. Despite entering a “re-integration program,” the one-time cook for Usama bin Laden has now fled to Yemen, where he is among the leadership of Al Qaeda in Yemen. That transfer is now said to be a source of considerable heartburn for the Obama administration.

As for those on the docket for immediate transfer, the Obama administration has decided not to identify the detainees until they are relocated in their new home countries -- because knowing who they are in advance would create further roadblocks and increase the controversy.

Multiple countries have agreed to take the men, in small groups, and the source said some of the countries were so-called first timers -- a reference to the fact those countries had not taken Guantanamo detainees in the past.


Watch the video below...




According to a statement signed by Hannah Tetteh, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the assistance being offered the ex-inmates was at the request of the US government.

“At the request of the US Government, we have also agreed to accept two detainees of Yemeni origin who were detained in Guantanamo but who have been cleared of any involvement in any terrorist activities and are being released,” it said.

Just on the heels of the announcement by the government, Fox News reported on Wednesday that “Bin Atef is an admitted member of the Taliban and fought for Osama bin Laden, while Al-Dhuby trained with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.”

The station's Chief Intelligence Correspondent insisted both men trained at the Al-Farouk Training Camp at Afghanistan, adding that “this is no camp for Boy Scouts, they trained four of the 9/11 hijackers; this is a hard core Al-Qaeda training camp.”

Catherine said the duo were picked up by the United States government just after the 9/11 attacks.

Bin Atef, the Pentagon said, was a high risk to the US.

Wikileaks docket on him from 2007 indicate that at a time he had threatened to kill US citizens on multiple occasions, including a specific threat to cut their throat upon his release.

The Pentagon had previously said Al-Dhuby posed a medium risk if released.

When asked what the deal was, she said the U.S. Government has decided to keep that a secret. Queried further by the interviewer as to why the U.S. Government has decided not to reveal this to citizens. She said, “That’s because it’s embarassing”.

It is so far unclear what both the US and Ghana governments are ‘hiding’ over the transfer of these terrorists to Ghana; a development that has caused a lot of discontentment on the part of many Ghanaians.


The news update (interview) is transcribed below...

Catherine Herridge responds to a question “This guy, Bin Atef is released, he is a Yemeni national the [US] military accepts him [Bin Atef] to be a member of the Taliban, a follower of Osama Bin Laden. The second guy goes by Sala Al-Adubi he is also  a Yemeni. both of them were judged to beat at least of medium risk to US national security in 2007″.

“Here is the key thing about the; they both attended something they call the Al-Farouk trainning camp in Afganistan; this is not a camp for boys scout. They trained four of the 9-11 hijackers so this is a hard core kind of training camp and they were picked up by the United States just after the 9-11 attack.”

Question from News Anchor: “Where are they going?”

Catherine Herridge: “they are going to Ghana. This is a small African nation”

she continues “and here is the thing that people are missing, these countries are not taking them out of the goodness of their hearts, they are taking them because they have been promised some favour in the future.”

Interjection from News Anchor: “what?”

Catherine Herridge: ”I don’t know in this case but i know in the past under the Bush administration, we have transferred a detainee to Albania, and a senior member of the administration went to NATO and advocated on Albania’s behalf to have more involvement…”

Question: “why don’t the American people get to know this?”

Catherine Herridge: “Because its embarrassing! That’s it. It is embarrassing”.

She continues after some interruption from the news anchor “all i know is that in 2007 these people [the two Gitmo prisoners] were accessed to be [of] either medium or high risk threat to the United States. and whats really changed over the last eight years is not that they have suddenly become different people, but what happened is that this White House is willing to accept more risks, dialogue the risk in order to close the camp…”