Fox’s Pirro: Obama set ISIS leader free in 2009

By Jon Greenberg on Thursday, June 19th, 2014 at 6:05 p.m.

The march of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, across a swath of Iraq has fractured a nation and spurred Republican attacks that the Obama administration is on the verge of “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro tied President Barack Obama to the roots of the current assault. On June 14, Pirro offered listeners this insight into the ISIS leader. (ISIS is also called ISIL, for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.)

“The head of this band of savages is a man named Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the new Osama Bin Laden,” Pirro said. “A man released by Obama in 2009, who started ISIS a year later. And when Baghdadi left Camp Bucca, where the worst of the worst were held in Iraq, he threatened his American jailers saying, ‘I’ll see you in New York.’ ”

A reader wanted to know if Obama actually released Baghdadi, and we decided to look into it. Whatever the truth, the assertion has gained traction. For the president’s critics this fits with their disdain for the recent prisoner swap that freed Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban leaders who had been kept at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Red State, a conservative blog, used the Baghdadi connection to talk about Obama’s “catch-and-release” policy.

We have two elements to verify. Was Baghdadi in U.S. custody in 2009 and did Obama have a direct connection to his release? We’ll deal with them in order.
Will the real Abu Bakr al Baghdadi please stand up

MORE http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/jun/19/jeanine-pirro/foxs-pirro-obama-set-isis-leader-free-2009/