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  • 2019-10-28 (xsd:date)
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  • Was IS Leader al-Baghdadi Released from US Prison in Obama Era? (en)
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  • On Oct. 28, 2019, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an old and persistent rumor holding that the Islamic State (IS) leader had been released from a United States detention facility in 2009 under the Obama administration started to recirculate on social media: This is not accurate. While al-Baghdadi was once held at a U.S. detention facility called Camp Bucca in Iraq, he was released in 2004, more than four years before Barack Obama took office. The rumor that IS leader al-Baghdadi (who was born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai) was released during the Obama administration first started to gain prominence in 2014 as the U.S. negotiated an exchange for soldier Bowe Bergdahl. As conservative pundits accused Obama of having a so-called terrorist catch-and-release policy, some pointed to al-Baghdadi's alleged 2009 release as an example. Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro, for instance, said: The claim that al-Baghdadi said I'll see you in New York as he left Camp Bucca, as well as the claim that he was released in 2009 during the Obama administration, can both be traced back to a 2014 Daily Beast interview with Army Col. Kenneth King. King told The Daily Beast that he remembered al-Baghdadi at Camp Bucca in 2009 after seeing news reports about how he had become the leader of IS in 2014, and that he was a little surprised by al-Baghdadi's rise in the terrorist ranks: Although King told The Daily Beast he remembered al-Baghdadi being released from Camp Bucca in 2009, the Defense Department disputed this account. According to a statement from the Pentagon, al-Baghdadi was captured in February 2004 and then released a few months later in December. A U.S. official also disputed King's account in a statement to ABC News. The official said that he wasn't sure exactly when al-Baghdadi had been released, but said that he had resumed his activities and had been active with the group [ISIS] since 2006, two years before Obama took office. When pressed on this by ABC News, King said that he could be mistaken about the timing of al-Baghdadi's release. While King said that the man who left Camp Bucca in 2009 saying I'll see you in New York was a dead ringer for al-Baghdadi, the U.S. colonel conceded that he didn't connect al-Baghdadi to the 2009 encounter until he saw photographs of the IS leader in 2014: So the claim that al-Baghdadi was released in 2009 is largely based on a U.S. colonel's recollection of a five-year-old encounter after glimpsing a recent photograph of al-Baghdadi. The only other piece of evidence to support this claim comes from an alleged Pentagon document cited by The Telegraph about a terrorist named Abu Duaa. While al-Baghdadi may have used the name Abu Duaa at one point, this is likely a nom de guerre, a fake name an individual assumes during war, that multiple members of IS used. The Telegraph quotes Lieutenant-General Sir Graeme Lamb, a former British special forces commander who helped U.S. efforts against al-Qaeda in Iraq, saying that we either arrested or killed a man of that name about half a dozen times: The evidence supporting the claim that al-Baghdadi was released from Camp Bucca in 2009 is flimsy at best. It is based on a single colonel's years-old recollection and a document mentioning a nom de guerre. The official story is that al-Baghdadi was captured in February 2004, held at the Camp Bucca detention center, and then released a few months later in December. Here's a statement from the Pentagon about IS leader al-Baghdadi's detention and release from Camp Bucca in 2004: In addition to the Pentagon's statement, Business Insider obtained al-Baghdadi's detainee records through a Freedom of Information Act request in 2015. The official documents show that al-Baghdadi was captured on Feb. 4, 2004, and that the date of his release was Dec. 8. We reached out to the Department of Defense for more information about al-Baghdadi's release and will update this article if more information becomes available. (en)
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