Report: US may send Guantánamo detainee to be tried in Israel

The US is reportedly interested in solving one of its headaches by passing it on to Israel. 

The Obama administration has asked Israel to prosecute a Kenyan terrorist held at Guantánamo since 2007, the Miami Herald reported Thursday.

US intelligence authorities have linked the man, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, 43, to 2002 terror attacks on Israeli targets in Mombasa, Kenya.

Israel is interested in the move, US officials aware of the offer said, but is awaiting cooperation from the FBI.

Abdul Malik, as he is widely known, “admitted that he participated in the planning and execution” of two terrorist attacks that targeted Israelis in 2002 in Mombasa, a 2007 prison profile stated.

A car-bombing of the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel killed 13 people, mostly Kenyans, while an unsuccessful surface-to-air missile attack on the same day targeted an Israeli Arkia airliner carrying 271 passengers near Mombasa airport.

Malik has never been charged with a crime at the war court.

In June, the Obama administration’s board for uncharged captives declared him too dangerous to release, using the terms “forever prisoner” and indefinite detainee.

Obama administration officials involved in the effort to close Guantánamo prison described the offer to Israel as part of White House-encouraged “creative thinking” to find places to prosecute unreleasable captives.

The State Department’s Special Envoy for the closure of Guantánamo, Ambassador Lee Wolosky, traveled to Israel in April and met with senior officials who “expressed interest” in the case, according to some government officials.

The FBI has not yet provided the Israelis with information in order to allow the deal to move forward.

The reasons for the FBI’s decline to do so are unclear.

By: World Israel News Staff