Gitmo 2 saga: US Amb. has 'vindicated' me – Irbard

Security Analyst Irbard Ibrahim has said the U.S. Ambassador has vindicated his earlier claim that the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo, was notified about the transfer of two ex-detainees of Guantanamo Bay – Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al Dhuby – to Ghana, before the transfer was done on January 6, 2016.

Mr Ibrahim’s expression of vindication follows U.S. Ambassador Robert Jackson’s comment, when he met with some select media houses on Friday April 15 that: “The Foreign Minister and this Embassy consulted about informing other stakeholders, and, so, we did talk to Akufo-Addo before the transfer happened.”

Subsequent to that, Mr Irbard, in his statement, said: “Even though it feels refreshing that the U.S. Ambassador has vindicated me on the ferociously debated Nana Akufo-Addo's Gitmo 2 consultation prior to the transfer of the two ex-detainees, my apology to that honourable statesman on the erroneous 6-month timeline still holds and such error will never happen again God-willing.”

“I want to reassure all my good friends in the media and the Ghanaian public of my commitment to remaining a fair and independent analyst on matters of International Relations and Security, but will always have the humility to apologise any time I go wrong.

“I reassure the leaders of all political parties of my unwavering respect, deference and reverence for them all in equal measure regardless of the political parties involved.

“As an ambassador of peace and a conscientious national figure I neither support nor loathe any political party,” Sheikh Ibrahim said.