You remember that saying, ‘the footsoldiers are not that dangerous’?. No, neither do I- because nobody has ever said before.
Government have been trying their best to make the decision to take on former Guantanamo Bay detainees, who have been proven as former terrorists, look as innocuous as possible.
So Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh was on Radio Gold this morning to explain the situation to Ghanaians. According to her, those two are not dangerous in any sense, as they did not hold any important positions in the terrorist organisations they were in, but were merely footsoldiers.
“They were low level fighters with no operational functionality in Al-Qaeda…to put it in simple terms, they were foot soldiers of AI Qaeda… captured in the early days and put behind bars for 14 years,” she said.
The implication here is that we have nothing to fear, since they were only foot soldiers. The President echoed those same sentiments when he spoke on the issue at his Tuesday press briefing.
“Ghana did a risk assessment after the US made the request for Ghana to take them. These were low-risk people who were picked when they were 20 years old. There was no evidence that they could be charged.” He told the assembled press.
“We did a comprehensive appraisal of the situation when the request came in from the US to take the detainees…The two detainees were said to be the lowest risk inmates of Guantanamo Bay.
“I won’t take any decision that will jeopardise the security of this country…we don’t have anything to fear from them,” he added.
Speaking further, Hannah Tetteh dismissed suggestions that government committed any illegality in failing to notify Parliament of the deal that took place. According to her, it was well within the purview of the executive to take that decision, and that it is in all our interest that national security matters be discussed in private.
“There is no legal requirement to do so (notify parliament), we have an executive presidency…..issues pertaining to national security are not discussed on the streets and on the floor of the house.
“…It is in the interest of Ghanaians that such matters are not discussed in the open”. She concluded.

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