The leader of the al-Qaida off-shoot group dead set on establishing a terrorist caliphate in Iraq had a dead-serious warning for the American colonel who released him from a detention camp  in 2009.

“I’ll see you guys in New York,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told Army Col. Kenneth King, according to the Daily Mail.

At the time, King said, he took the words lightly. Al-Baghdadi was being transferred into the custody of Arab forces who were going to be responsible for guarding him and making sure he didn’t get back into the battlefield.

Five years later, with the same man now in charge of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the insurgent group that’s taken two large Iraqi cities and actually threatening the capital of Baghdad, those words seem much more menacing.

And in light of the Obama administration’s decision to release five top terrorist leaders from the prison in Guantanamo Bay in return for one American soldier who is more than likely a deserter, they’re particularly chilling.

The Gitmo inmates were released to a government that was supposed to take over their custody (just like al-Baghdadi). According to numerous reports, they’re serious threats to return to battle against the U.S., (just like al-Baghdadi).

Now, al-Baghdadi is leading an army whose goal is to undo the work of the American military of the past 12 years. And as President Obama makes vague statements about air strikes, and meaningless statements about how it’s “ultimately up to the Iraqis as a sovereign nation to solve their problems,” al-Baghdadi appears to have a pretty good chance of succeeding.

So it might be up to the Iraqis to solve their problems, as Obama says, but it’s should also be up to the president of the United States to make sure the country is safe from attack.

This president just released five of the most dangerous terrorists in Gitmo to an Arab government in Qatar that’s supposed to be responsible for making sure they don’t get back onto the battlefield. According to media reports, U.S. intelligence agencies don’t believe Qatar is capable of that (even if it is serious about it.)

So, like al-Baghdadi, at least some going to return to the fight.

And when they say, “see you in New York,” they won’t mean they’re catching a Broadway show.

c

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Joe Saunders

Joe Saunders, a 25-year newspaper veteran, is a staff writer and editor for BizPac Review who lives in Tallahassee and covers capital and Florida politics. Email Joe at [email protected].

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