We could have saved ourselves a Hellfire missile if we just executed him when we had him in custody.

Via LWJ:

Hassan Ghul, a top al Qaeda leader who was in US custody for two years before being transferred to Pakistani custody and then promptly released, was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan in October 2012. Ghul served as Osama bin Laden’s emissary to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, and while in US custody, disclosed key information that led to the killing of bin Laden.

Ghul’s death was disclosed by The Washington Post, which learned of his death from classified documents released by Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency who has since fled to Russia. Ghul was tracked by the NSA and the CIA, which launched the drone strike, by monitoring his communications with his wife.

Ghul and other al Qaeda leaders have been tracked after the NSA “draped a surveillance blanket over dozens of square miles of northwest Pakistan,” The Washington Post reported today. “In Ghul’s case, the agency deployed an arsenal of cyber-espionage tools, secretly seizing control of laptops, siphoning audio files and other messages, and tracking radio transmissions to determine where Ghul might ‘bed down.'”

Ghul was killed in the Oct. 1, 2012 drone strike that targeted a vehicle in the village of Khaderkhail in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. Two other jihadists, whose identities were not disclosed, were also killed when four missiles slammed into his vehicle. Mir Ali is a known hub for al Qaeda and a plethora of Pakistan and Central Asian jihadist groups. Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other terror groups in North Waziristan, the Pakistani military and government refuse to launch an operation to regain control of the tribal agency.