U.S. Releases Iranian-backed Killer Of American Troops In Exchange For Brit Hostage

To say I'm livid about this would be a huge understatement. I cannot put it into words as well as The Long War Journal does here:

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.

I remember very vividly that very kidnapping and killing of those 5 American soldiers back in 2007 and at that time I was pleading with our forces to find those behind it and savagely avenge the deaths of those soldiers. So, we captured these animals and after all this time...we end up letting this guy go in exchange for a British journalist. Now, I don't mean to minimize the life of that Brit journalist but believe me, the Iranians and al Qaeda and the Taliban are going to make serious note of this...that America is willing to deal and it is going to put a warrant on every U.S. troop out there.

I don't believe for a minute that this is about "reconciliation" - it's a fact that the Iraqi government has been more hardline than we had even hoped for - we haven't seen wholesale amnesty for al Sadr's henchmen, etc. If there's anything to blame the Iraqis on here it's that they probably got lazy in trying to find this hostage - at this point in time in Iraq, it's not exactly easy for an insurgent group to stay hidden with a hostage for 2 years.

Since I can't seem to type through the anger, this military officer put it best:

“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.”

So, here we are. We have our troops in Afghanistan fighting a war with two arms tied behind their backs due to ROE conjured up by the Obama pacifists. And we have our fallen troops memories being blasphemed by the release of those responsible for their deaths. Disgusting. Hell, it's more than disgusting.

US releases ‘dangerous’ Iranian proxy behind the murder of US troops

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.
Background on Qais Qazali
Qais Qazali was the commander of the League of the Righteous before US forces detained him and several other Shia terrorists in 2007. Qais commanded a large Mahdi Army faction and served as a spokesman and senior aide to Muqtada al Sadr. The terror group, which was part of the Mahdi Army until the spring of 2008, has received extensive financial and military support from Iran's Qods Force, the external division that backs Hezbollah and is tasked with supporting the Khomeinist Islamist revolution.
The League of the Righteous was directly implicated by General David Petraeus as being behind the January 2007 attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala as well as other high-profile terror attacks in Iraq. Five US soldiers were killed during the Karbala attack and subsequent kidnapping attempt. The US soldiers were executed after US and Iraqi security forces closed in on the assault team.
The attack on the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center was a complex, sophisticated operation. The assault team, led by tactical commander Azhar al Dulaimi, was trained in a mock-up of the center that was built in Iran. The unit had excellent intelligence and received equipment that made them appear to be US soldiers. Some of the members of the assault team are said to have spoken English.
The US military caught a break when it detained Laith and Qais and several other members of the network during a raid in Basrah in March 2007. Also detained during the raid was Ali Mussa Daqduq, a senior Hezbollah operative who was tasked by Iran to organize the Special Groups and "rogue" Mahdi Army cells along the lines of Lebanese Hezbollah. Daqduq is a 24-year veteran of Hezbollah, and he commanded both a Hezbollah special operations unit and the security detail of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Azhar al Dulaimi was killed in a raid in Baghdad in May 2007.