Sen. Kelly Ayotte told Fox News she is glad Rep. Duncan Hunter is asking questions about the timing of the release of an al-Qaida operative accused of plotting a second wave of 9/11-style attacks on U.S. soil.
The Daily Beast reported Sunday that questions have been raised over the quiet release of Ali Saleh Al-Marri to Qatar a day before President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech on Tuesday.
The Daily Beast quoted a source who said Qatari government officials suggested a prisoner swap to the legal team of Matthew and Grace Huang, an American couple charged in Qatar in the death of their adopted daughter. The Huangs were released by Qatar in December.
The suggestion of a swap is said to have occurred in July, just after Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was freed by Taliban captors for five Taliban leaders being held by the United States.
The White House told The Daily Beast that the Bergdahl swap is part of a longstanding policy to trade prisoners of war, but that there is no such policy for civilians being held abroad.
"I do think we need more details about this because the timing of this is very suspicious," Ayotte said Monday on Fox News Channel's
"On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."
"That's the real worry that some many of us have had," the New Hampshire Republican said.
"The issue really is that what's the price being put on American lives? … We now are going to have a pattern where people are being asked to be traded. You have ISIS also saying for certain individuals we want terrorists released in exchange for some of the prisoners we he have. "
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