Sweden promised to control their Muslim terrorist - and failed

Counter Jihad 19 September 2009

Expressen Micke Ölander

Ambassadören: "Vi fick löften från Sverige"

Svenska regeringen tvingades lova USA att övervaka Mehdi Ghezali. Sverige gick också med på att stoppa honom från att fortsätta med "terroristhandlingar". USA betraktade svensken som ett "hot". Det berättar Pierre-Richard Prosper, tidigare ambassadör vid amerikanska UD, för Expressen. - Det fanns en grupp fångar som inte släpptes om vi inte fick dessa löften. Den person vi talar om tillhör den gruppen.

The Swedish government was forced to promise the U.S. to monitor Mehdi Ghezali. Sweden also agreed to stop him from continuing  "terrorist activities".

The United States considered Ghezali as a threat, Pierre-Richard Prosper, a former official with the US Department of  State, told the Expressen.

"There is a group of prisoners who will not  be released unless we got those promises. The person we are talking about belongs to this group."

The former Guantanamo Bay terrorist, Mehdi Ghezali, was arrested  on August 28 along with two other Swedish Muslims, Munir Awad, and Safia Benaouda, in Pakistan and  have been since imprisoned by the Pakistani intelligence service ISI.

Terrorist activity

Swedish-Finnish-Algerian Muslim  terrorist, Ghezali, is suspected of terrorist activity and illegal entry to Pakistan.

Pierre-Richard Prosper negotiated personally with the Swedish Foreign Ministry on the conditions for releasing the Swede  from Guantanamo Bay five years ago. Now that Ghezali has been arrested again for terrorist activity, the former US Department of State official divulges the US' demands for his release to Sweden:

"We requested the Swedish government to take the action it deemed appropriate to try to ensure that Ghezali  will  not resume the activities he have previously engaged in, " said Pierre-Richard Prosper to Expressen

"A dangerous person"

He is very clear on one point. Ghezali was caught by the  U.S. authorities because he is a dangerous person.

"There was a group of prisoners who were not released unless we got those promises. And the person we are talking about belonged to the group. I personally handled the negotiations. They would not be released unless we were promised that they would, among other things, be monitored," Pierre Richard Prosper told the Expressen newspaper.

Serious demands

The requirement was considered extra heavy when it came to this group of Guantanamo detainees.

"It was our policy to rely on the host country's government to take the necessary steps to prevent these people from continuing terrorist activities, " he told Expressen.

Were these agreements in writing and formal?

"There were formal agreements. We exchanged, for example, diplomatic notes in which we asked the governments to take appropriate measures, and the governments gave us the promise that these measured would be taken."

"Only after we were satisfied, were the Muslim terrorists transferred to home countries." Prosper did not reveal what governments he were talking about, and was Sweden one of those countries.

"In general, governments would give us an idea of what steps they would take, " Prosper explained.

Does not want to comment

Laila Freivalds, who was then Minister of Justice in the KU - the Constitutional Committee - denied that the U.S. was given the promises Mr. Prosper claims for the release of Ghezali from the Guantanamo Bay prison.

The Foreign Ministry's press officer, Cecilia Juhlin, said last night that the Foreign Ministry will not comment on the contents of the correspondence about Ghezali case between the U.S. and Sweden that is stored in the Foreign Ministry's archives.