The State Department on Wednesday sanctioned a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, labeling a “specially designated global terrorist,” following reports that the former detainee helped orchestrate the Turkey airport bombings.
The U.S. military detained Ayrat Nasimovich Vakhitov in June 2002 for his alleged knowledge about a U.S. citizen killed in a Taliban prison. Vakhitov, a Russian-born citizen, was detained for two years but then released into Russian custody in 2004, under President George W. Bush, after the State Department found he was not a Taliban leader and had no ties to al-Qaeda.
“Because of the Russian government’s agreement to incarcerate this detainee upon his transfer, and provided that he remains incarcerated under the control of the Russian government, the detainee poses no future threat to the U.S. or its allies,” the assessment said.
After Vakhitov arrived in Russia, however, a Russian court released him after finding no evidence of terrorist activities. A year later, Russian authorities again detained him then released him two months later with no charges.
Vakhitov then fled Russia, renouncing his citizenship to seek asylum in the Middle East, according to a report.
The State Department said it sanctioned Vakhitov because he is now connected with Jaysh al-Muhajirin Wal Ansar, an organization that partly joined the Islamic State. In addition, State is accusing Vakhitov of using the Internet to recruit militants to travel to Syria.
On July 5, Turkish officials arrested Vakhitov over alleged connections to the terrorist attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk airport. While no terrorist organization has claimed responsibility, it’s widely believed the Islamic State conducted the attack.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairmen Ed Royce, R-Calif., said the new terrorist charges against Vakhitov should cause the Obama administration to reconsider plans to transfer more Guantanamo Bay detainees to other countries.
“It’s time for the president to halt all releases, and fundamentally reassess his plan to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay,” Royce said. “Dangerous jihadists are being released to countries with little intention of controlling them. And once again, it appears the results have been disastrous.”
Royce continued, “How many more innocent people have to die before the administration wakes up?”
The White House Thursday said it had no plans to stop transferring additional detainees overseas and stressed that the Bush administration released Vakhitov before Obama instituted a process for screening detainees before their release.
“The individual that you’re referring to was released by the previous administration prior to the new regime that President Obama instituted on his second full day in office,” spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Earnest said the screening “regime” vets the detainees and works closely with countries accepting them “to mitigate the risks they would pose to the United States.”
“Our process has been much more rigorous” than the Bush administration’s, Earnest said. “And the number of former Gitmo detainees that have been released after this regime that have been confirmed to have reengaged is much smaller.”
More than one-third of the Guantanamo Bay detainees released have been confirmed or suspected to have reengaged in terrorism, according to the Obama administration.
But of those released since Obama took office, only 13 percent have been confirmed or suspected to have reengaged in terrorism, according to the most recent report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
