We released thousands of al Qaeda and LIFG. These are are the same al Qaeda we captured on battlefields and found unimportant enough to summarily execute or simply disappear. Unlike American presidents, leaders of Muslim countries have to worry about Islamist infiltration of their personal guard. Gaddafi is still getting flak from Libyan Islamists for putting down a 1996 prison revolt by killing 1200 Islamists who killed 200 prison guards - Islamists who tried to assassinate him.
What kind of flak would Gaddafi get for killing al Qaeda operatives who had laudably (in Muslim eyes) gone forth to fight the Western infidel in Iraq? As I never get tired of reminding people - the current anti-Gaddafi revolt arose out of demonstrations staged by relatives of the Islamists killed by Gaddafi during the prison revolt in 1996 - Islamists who had tried to kill him and overthrow the regime.
Muslim leaders are not god emperors in the Chinese or Japanese mode. Muslims already have a god. His name is Allah. To a Muslim, there is no such thing as being too devout, especially if it involves killing infidels. Gaddafi's hands were tied, as are the hands of the other Muslim governments to which we have handed al Qaeda operatives captured in Iraq. Most or all have been released. Many have gone back to attacking American troops. This is why I think these individuals should be imprisoned indefinitely - to release them to Muslim governments is the equivalent of catch-and-release.
Or is it Iran that's behind them?
Or al-qaeda?
Or the muslim brotherhood?
Maybe it's all of them!
Is this a Saudi/Iranian plot? Maybe the Saudis are only pretending to be against Iran like the Taliban is pretending to support Kadhafi? How diabolical!