Parole panel declares Libyan too dangerous to leave Guantanamo
MIAMI _ A day after the Obama administration disclosed its largest single-day detainee downsizing, the Pentagon revealed Tuesday that the Guantanamo parole board approved the indefinite detention of a Libyan captive _ the prison's 18th board-approved "forever prisoner."
Ismael Ali Faraj Ali Bakush, 48, got to the detention center in southeast Cuba on Aug. 5, 2002. He has never been charged with a crime. The board decision dated Monday said he "played a significant role in al-Qaida operations," was an explosives expert and trainer and had no plans for life after Guantanamo. It essentially declared him too dangerous to go.
At his hearing July 14, an unnamed U.S. military officer helping him make his case for freedom called the captive "eager and excited to begin a new chapter in his life. Ismael wishes only to move forward and to put the past behind him." The U.S. officer also called him a sports enthusiast who likes to watch and play soccer, takes health and life skills classes at Guantanamo and appreciates the various cultural backgrounds he has encountered at communal detention.
A U.S. military intelligence estimate issued in May called him a former member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who "almost certainly plotted to kill Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi." The State Department branded LIFG a terrorist organization in 2004, then delisted it in December. The May intelligence profile called Bakush "compliant but uncooperative" in U.S. military custody because he had offered "little information of value while outlasting a series of interrogators."
The panel that rejected his bid for release called him lacking in candor, evasive and providing "frequently absurd" answers to questions about his past and beliefs.
_Miami Herald
