Why the US released ISIS’ leader in 2004 – IOTW Report

Why the US released ISIS’ leader in 2004

We Are The Mighty: In President Trump’s 2018 State of the Union Address, he mentioned that the U.S. military captured Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi but released him. This may have been a surprise to many watching.

“We have foolishly released hundreds and hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield — including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi,” Trump said.

The U.S. did capture Baghdadi in February 2004, in the early days of the Iraq War. He was held at Camp Bucca, a prison facility in Garma, Iraq, along the country’s border with Kuwait.

But back then he was just Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Al Badry, a civilian detainee. He was one of some 80,000 detainees who were held at one of four detention facilities throughout Iraq. They were a mix of petty criminals and insurgents captured in house raids over the course of the war.

Baghdadi was captured in a house raid near Fallujah in 2004; he was described by U.S. officials as a “street thug” at the time.

Nine U.S. military review boards worked six days a week reviewing the detainees’ cases over the lifetime of the prison system, resulting in 20-45 percent of captured prisoners being released.  read more

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