Anyone Remember Qays Khazali?

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Here's a hint:

Contrary to U.S. military statements, four U.S. soldiers did not die repelling a sneak attack at the governor’s office in the Shiite holy city of Karbala last week. New information obtained by The Associated Press shows they were abducted and found dead or dying as far as 25 miles away.

Khazali planned and commanded this operation.

Two months later he was captured.

Why bring all this up?

Because Khazali is in the news again:

The US has released the leader of an Iranian-backed Shia terror group behind the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007.

Qais Qazali, the leader of the Asaib al Haq or the League of the Righteous, was set free by the US military and transferred to Iraqi custody in exchange for the release of British hostage Peter Moore, US military officers and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal. The US military directly implicated Qais in the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007.

“We let a very dangerous man go, a man whose hands are stained with US and Iraqi blood,” a military officer said. “We are going to pay for this in the future.”

The US military has maintained that the release of members and leaders of the League of the Righteous is related to a reconciliation agreement between the terror group and the Iraqi government, but some US military officers disagree.

“The official line is the release of Qazali is about reconciliation, but in reality this was a prisoner swap,” a military intelligence official said.

Moore and four members of his personal bodyguard were kidnapped at the Finance Ministry in Baghdad in May 2007 by a group that calls itself the Islamic Shia Resistance, which is in fact a front for the League of the Righteous. The group had always insisted that Qais, his brother Laith, and other members of the Asaib al Haq be released in exchange for Moore and the others. Three of Moore’s bodyguards were executed while in custody, and the fourth is thought to have been murdered as well.

“This was a deal signed and sealed in British and American blood,” a US military officer told The Long War Journal. “We freed all of their leaders and operatives; they [the League of the Righteous] executed their hostages and sent them back in body bags. And we’re supposed to be happy about it.”

As of mid-October, the US had released more than 100 members of the League of the Righteous. The US has also released several senior Qods Force officers, including Mahmud Farhadi, the leader of the Zafr Command, one of three units subordinate to the Qods Force's Ramazan Corps. Farhadi was among five Iranians turned over to the Iraqi government and then subsequently turned over to the Iranians in July.

The US has released the Iranian operatives and proxies despite rising tensions between Iran and Iran. Iran is currently occupying Iraqi oil wells in Maysan province. Shia terror groups backed by Iran remain active in Iraq, and the Iraqi security forces continue to round up members of the Hezbollah Brigades, the Mahdi Army, the Promised Day Brigade, and the Special Groups. Iraqi security forces are also actively hunting for Qods Force agents who have entered Iraq.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/12/us_releases_dangerou.php#ixzz0bURSnmQO

Jake Tapper at ABC has corroborated.

No American soldier should have to shed his blood for this president.

There, I said it.