Surprise! Freed Al-Jazeera Terror Suspect Feigns Frailty for Cameras

Media outlets around the globe gushed Thursday when al-Jazeera's own Sami al-Hajj was freed from Guantanamo Bay.

Ever the propagandist, al-Jazeera milked his arrival back in the Sudan for all it was worth.

Seeking to counter video footage of a just-released Guantanamo detainee unable to walk and grimacing in pain as he is loaded off a U.S. military plane in Sudan, the Pentagon is preparing to release its own video that shows Sami al-Hajj appearing healthy as he boarded the plane to leave Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Broadcast images of his arrival in Sudan showed a weakened al-Hajj returning home after six years of detention at Guantanamo.

The Pentagon sees al-Hajj's weakened appearance as the former detainee's latest effort to influence public opinion.

"He's a manipulator and a propagandist," said one of the three Defense Department officials who spoke to ABC News. One of the officials talked about al-Hajj's "constant drumbeat of allegations" about the treatment of Guantanamo detainees, which had apparently become an irritant to his military handlers. One of the officials said that his credibility was called into question because there was "no information to substantiate his allegations that he was mistreated at Guantanamo."

One thing we know for sure is these al Qaeda scum are master manipulators, not that it takes much for a gullible media and leftwingers to be duped.

A Pentagon official familiar with his case said that al-Hajj's airport arrival in Sudan was "very orchestrated. He knew media would be there for the arrival and obviously he was using that to his advantage."

His weakened appearance during his airport arrival also was questioned by another Pentagon official.

"It's interesting to me that he was carried off the plane claiming he couldn't walk or speak," the official said, "and then we see him on al-Jazeera speaking on a cell phone, giving interviews and leaning down to pick up his son. He seemed like a healthy individual to me."

Al-Hajj had been on a hunger strike for 16 months. But one of the Defense Department officials said that he was not malnourished because of the regular forced feedings he had received during that time.

Here's an al-Jazeera report.

The maggot looks fine to me.