Posted on 05/02/2016 3:41:28 AM PDT by SJackson
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
On Thursday morning, sailors on board the USS Cole were lining up for an early lunch. Seventeen of them died as an Al Qaeda bomb on board a fishing boat tore through the hull outside the galley. The dead included 15 men and 2 women, one of whom had a young child. For three weeks the crew of the USS Cole struggled to keep their ship from sinking while working waist deep in water with bucket brigades, sleeping on the deck and living surrounded by the terrible aftermath of the terrorist attack.
The survivors, wounded and whole, received the words "Glory is the Reward of Valor" written on the bent steel removed from the site of the explosion that tore through their ship and their lives.
The President of the United States promised that justice would be done. To those who attacked them we say: You will not find a safe harbor. We will find you and justice will prevail.
Despite Clintons words, justice did not prevail.
The father of Home Maintenance Technician Third Class Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter believed that there would be justice, but he was to be disappointed. I just felt, for sure, you know, theyre not going to go ahead and just kiss off the lives of 17 U.S. sailors, he said. In fact, they didnt do anything.
Walid bin Attash, a planner of the USS Cole bombing and who also played a role in the 9/11 attack, is still at Gitmo. His trial continues to drag on while he and his lawyers play games. Rahim Hussein al-Nashiri, another of the planners, is still awaiting trial. But Mashur Abdallah Ahmed al Sabri, one of the members of the USS Cole cell, has already been released by Barack Obama from Guantanamo Bay.
Sabri was rated as a high risk terrorist who is is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies, but that was no obstacle for Obama who had already fired one Secretary of Defense for being slow to free dangerous Al Qaeda terrorists and was browbeating his latest appointee over the same issue.
The very paperwork that was used as the basis for the decision to free Sabri describes him as a member of a Yemeni al-Qaida cell directly involved with the USS Cole attack. This cell conducted surveillance on the targeted vessel and prepared explosives for the bombing. Sabri had been arrested in Yemen for his involvement in the attack before he managed to make his way to Afghanistan.
Now he is a free man and has been sent back to the homeland of terrorism, Saudi Arabia.
After praising the beautiful religious tradition of Islam, which the USS Cole terrorists had twisted, President Clinton had promised that, America will not stop standing guard.
But under him, it never even started standing guard.
While Osama bin Laden prepared for US retaliation, evacuating Kandahar and escaping into the desert, President Clinton rejected military action against the terrorists claiming that the evidence against Bin Laden was not strong enough. The State Department warned that attacking Bin Laden would inflame the Islamic world.
Very little has changed since then. Muslim terrorists strike and we are told to close our eyes and appease harder or we risk inflaming the tender sensitivities of the Muslim world.
Most Americans have grown numb to the parade of Islamic terrorists triumphantly exiting Gitmo as free men. No matter their risk rating, the Arabic names, the dark smirks and scowls all come to blend together. But Sabri is not just another Bin Laden bodyguard or operative. His cell has American blood on its hands.
The USS Cole attack was the final step on the road to 9/11. Our governments inaction sent a message that America could be hit hard and we would not retaliate. It told Al Qaeda that American blood was dirt cheap and that the murder of our people came with no price.
These days we are sending that same message all over again.
Obamas release of Sabri is yet another page in that same dark history. It is a betrayal of the dead and the wounded. And of their families. It is a betrayal of the promise made by his Democratic predecessor, vowing, After all they have given us, we must give them their meaning.
In 2009, Obama had met with USS Cole families and promised them swift action. But a year later the families were accusing his administration of inaction and broken promises. His statement on the tenth anniversary of the attack made no mention of bringing the attackers to justice. Instead he stated that, We will honor their legacy of selfless service by advancing the values that they stood for throughout their lives. What were these values and how did they justify releasing one of the Cole cell terrorists?
From Clinton to Obama, there has been a long shameful tradition of substituting vague generic sentiments for justice. Of speaking of honor and healing, of pain and history, of tragedy and courage, while giving the killers behind the attack yet another pass. There is neither honor nor courage in that.
Mashur Abdallah Ahmed al Sabri has left American custody as a free man. It is not inconceivable that Obama will free even the masterminds of the USS Cole attack. As he empties Guantanamo Bay of the monsters squatting in its darkest corners, he slowly works his way toward the worst of the worst with an eye to letting them all go.
After the USS Cole attack, President Clinton contended, If, as it now appears, this was an act of terrorism, it was a despicable and cowardly act. This uncertainty and lack of conviction continues to haunt our War on Terror. Behind every statement about courage and honor, there is an if. Lurking behind every promise of action is yet another if. And these Ifs keep anything from being done.
Clintons fight against Al Qaeda lacked any conviction that we were right and they were wrong. And that is why during the Clinton years, we lost and they won. Obama is not bothered by the hanging If. He knows that we are wrong and if the terrorists are not quite right, they are still more right than we are.
That is why Obama freed Sabri. It is why he freed a legion of other Gitmo inmates. It is why he has made shutting down the prison for Islamic terrorists into one of the major goals of his administration.
The USS Cole attack sent a message to Islamic terrorists that American lives did not matter to our government. Obamas release of Sabri tells ISIS, Al Qaeda and its brethren the same thing once again.
They have given us their deaths, let us give them their meaning, President Clinton declared. After all these years have passed, their deaths remain a debt that this country has yet to repay with meaning. The dead do not ask us for glory. Despite the promises of past governments, they have been forgotten beyond the close circles of their shipmates and their families. But they have a right to justice.
The valorous dead of the USS Cole have been betrayed too many times to count by each administration. Somewhere their restless spirits wait for a safe harbor in a better America that will see justice done.
If there is, we are getting closer to it every day.
The person closest to the line is Hillary Clinton.
We will soon have confirmation if we are a nation of laws, or of men.
The politicians better guess the right answer.
Now we can expect a USS LINCOLN (The original target) attack.
You should know a man by his works.
Clinton is directly responsible for 9/11
He had 3-6 opportunities to kill bin Laden before 9/11 and didn’t act.....
Clinton sold secret satellite tecnology to China enabling them to develop satellites and refine ICBM accuracy and technology for weaponizing the heavens...
Clinton permitted the sale of metallurgial tecnology allowing the chinese and russian to develop quiet propellers for their subs...
TREASON
TREASON
and
TREASON
Obama trained, funded and facilitated ISIS and with a failed concept of using them to depose Assad truned them loose.. At the time ISIS was a designated terrorists group he called the JV and his actions were
TREASON
He plotted for 3 years with the muslim brotherhood to over throw Mubarak and he facilitated the murder of Ghadaffy as executed by Hillary Clinton.
Both actions stabbed an ally in the back and since the Muslim Brotherhood is a designated terrorists group Hillary Clintona nd Barak Obama are again guilty of
TREASON
the republicans DO NOTHING TO STOP this and are USELESS
Our president is busy seeding our communities with Jihad.
I saw a “fresh off the boat” Syrian with his kids yesterday. The look of insanity in the man eyes was inescapable. There is no doubt he will be training his kids to kill while they are subsidized with our tax dollars.
one wonders, why is Obama alive?
it is simply because he is black
Not anymore.
Treason ended with the Rosenbergs, and sailed with Jane Fonda.
Would (supposed non-conservative) Donald J Trump have let this guy go? No? you say? But, but, but he’s more liberal than Hillary and Obama, you say.
Trump has said he would “FILL IT UP” (GTMO) (with terrorists), not empty it.
Is he lying? Wadyasay, we just find out? I like my odds.
Yeah. And a lot of people, including many on this very forum, will tell you Bush is responsible for all ills related to anything Islam. The type of people who scream the loudest is nothing is done, then scream equally as loud if something is done.
People whine if you don’t take action. They whine if you do take action. Some of them just whine.
I copied and pasted some of this on Obama’s Facebook page. I wish he was in the dirt.
Obama and his wife celebrate when our troops die.
There is, and Obama has crossed it multiple times...
Is the “Innocence of Muslims” film maker still in jail?
Just curious.
You knew that he would, if given the opportunity, didn’t you? Obama and every son of a bitch that voted for him both times passionately and rabidly hate the United States and all the good they stand for and represent. In my opinion, every damn one of them should either be hung as traitors or deported to the Country where their heart is. But, if that happened, there would be no Democrat Party, no media, and very few members of the Republican Party remaining in the United States of America.
Obama is the most malignantly evil person ever to set foot in our White House. This decision to release a mass murderer show just how much he loves his fellow terrorists, and just how much he hates patriotic Americans such as those in our military.
A curse on those who elected an America hating president.
People whine if you dont take action. They whine if you do take action. Some of them just whine.
Yep. Cheese is optional, I guess.
Jesus Christ: You can't impeach Him and He ain't gonna resign.
YES!
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