Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 8:25:00 am
According to some estimates, at least 10 percent of the Al Qaeda terrorists released from Guantanamo Bay immediately return to the jihad, and here’s the latest example: Report: Ex-Gitmo detainee joins al-Qaida in Yemen.
CAIRO, Egypt – A Saudi man released from Guantanamo after spending nearly six years inside the U.S. prison camp is now the No. 2 of Yemen’s al-Qaida branch, according to a purported Internet statement from the terror network.
The announcement, made this week on a Web site commonly used by militants, came as President Barack Obama ordered the detention facility closed within a year. Many of the remaining detainees are from Yemen, which has long posed a vexing terrorism problem for the U.S.
The terror group’s Yemen branch — known as “al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula” — said the man, identified as Said Ali al-Shihri, returned to his home in Saudi Arabia after his release from Guantanamo about a year ago and from there went to Yemen, which is Osama bin Laden’s ancestral home.