Hon. Joseph Cudjoe, MP for Effia
Joseph Cudjoe, Member of Parliament for Effia Constituency, has indicated that Ghana could be subjected to AL-Qaeda attacks for accepting the ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees.
According to him, several points have been made, alluding to the fact that the two detainees pose some level of risk to the country, but the real risk of a possible attack has not been appreciated.
“I dare say that the major risk doesn’t lie with the two detainees themselves but rather relates to the parent organization that trained or radicalized them”, Mr. Cudjoe asserted.
The two - Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, were in detention for 14 years without trial in the United States of America (USA) after being picked up in Afghanistan and suspected to have been linked to the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.
Their presence in Ghana has generated loud public outcry with commentators including the clergy, demanding the repatriation of the two suspects back to their country, Yemen, because they pose a threat to Ghanaians.
Meanwhile, the MP disclosed in an interview with The New Crusading GUIDE, that by hosting the two ex-detainees, Ghana has openly declared to AL-Qaeda and its network of organisations that Ghana supports United States of America’s efforts to “dismantle” them.
“This indirect open declaration is where the real risk is. As for the two detainees we can effectively keep them under surveillance. It is Possible!
…what I have observed is that countries that openly support the US in their quest to dismantle these terrorists’ organisations become targets of attacks – the US itself, UK and France and recently Burkina Faso are good examples to cite in this respect”, he explained.
Mr. Cudjoe emphasized that exposing Ghana to a possible attack by their parent organization (Al-Quaeda) was the real danger and not the ex-detainees.
“So even if the detainees themselves have changed, it is possible for their parent organization to think that Ghana’s involvement to ‘deradicalize’ their trainees is inimical to their interest. This is one source of risk we haven’t averted our minds to up to this point in time”, he explained.
