Biden admin quietly resettles notorious al Qaeda terrorist Majid Khan in Belize after 16 years in CIA custody
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA: Joe Biden's administration has quietly released an al Qaeda terrorist from the notorious Guantanamo Bay to Belize after spending 16 years in CIA custody while Americans were distracted by the Chinese spy balloon. Majid Khan, 42, was radicalized by the 9/11 attack and joined the Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed where he helped move money and transport other senior terrorists. He is also accused of conspiring to plan an attack on US gas stations and water reservoirs.
Khan was arrested in Karachi and taken to CIA black sites ahead of an attack on an Indonesian hotel in March 2003. He was the only US resident to be held at Guantanamo and was released a week before United Nations officials visited the detention base camp in Cuba. The United States officials are working to free two al Qaeda terrorist brothers, Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani and Mohammed Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani, following 'ongoing US efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,' as reported by Daily Mail.
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Who is Majid Khan?
Majid Khan is a legal US resident and graduated from a Maryland high school in Baltimore. At the time of the 9/11 attack, he was working for a telecommunications contractor that managed the Pentagon phone system. He had said that the 9/11 terrorist attack "radicalized him,” prompting him to return to Pakistan the following year. Later, he joined al Qaeda and became a direct subordinate of KSM, the terrorist organization's senior operational planner and the principal architect of the September 11 attacks, reported Daily Mail.
(Democracy Now/YouTube screengrab)
According to his Defense Department detainee assessment, he worked as a close personal ally of KSM who tasked him to transport money and senior al Qaeda terrorists. The organization even planned to carry out a deadly attack in 2003 on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, and on gas stations and water reservoirs in the US. Following his arrest, in March 2003, he was brutally tortured by the CIA. Under George Bush's presidency, he announced in 2006 that Khan was one of 14 "high-value detainees" being transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
So many firsts in 20+ years of prison ops at Guantanamo Bay — conviction, hunger strike, suicide, art class, amputation. Today was a once unthinkable big one: The U.S. freed a former CIA black site prisoner who was sent to Gitmo as a “high-value detainee.” https://t.co/Yim7TOkOhL
— Carol Rosenberg (@carolrosenberg) February 3, 2023
In 2012, Khan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, spy, and "providing material support for terrorism," as reported by Daily Mail. He was sentenced to 10 years in confinement with "credit for the three years he spent cooperating with US personnel." On March 1, 2022, Khan's sentence ended but authorities had to find a country willing to take him prior to his release. Despite having family in the US he cannot reside with them as federal law does not allow Guantanamo Bay detainees to be resettled in the country.
Majid Khan plans to be a law-abiding citizen in Belize
On Thursday, February 2, Khan started his new life in Belize after completing his 10-year prison sentence. Following his release, he claimed to have changed as an individual and promised to be a law-abiding citizen in the country. "I have been given a second chance in life and intend to make the most of it. I deeply regret the things that I did many years ago, and I have taken responsibility and tried to make up for them. I continue to ask for forgiveness from God and those that I have hurt. I am truly sorry," Khan said in a statement.
Khan then noted, "The world has changed a lot in 20 years and I have changed as well. I promise all of you, especially the people of Belize, that I will be a productive, law-abiding member of society. Thank you for believing in me, and I will not let you down. My actions will speak louder than my words." His legal team also lauded the Belize government for "offering him a chance to begin a new life."
Wells Dixon, a senior lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement, "Belize has done an outstanding job to prepare for his resettlement, and their success serves as a model for other countries to accept men who no one thinks should remain at Guantanamo, but who cannot return to their home countries for humanitarian reasons." After Khan's release, the number of prisoners at Guantanamo is down to just 34 from a high of 660, following evolving plans to shut down the facility.