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| Arabia |
| Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief |
| 2009-01-23 |
| The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order President Obama signed Thursday that the detention center be shut down within a year. The militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sana, in September. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen. His status was announced in an Internet statement by the militant group and was confirmed by an American counterterrorism official. “They’re one and the same guy,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity because he was discussing an intelligence analysis. “He returned to Saudi Arabia in 2007, but his movements to Yemen remain unclear.” The development came as Republican legislators criticized the plan to close the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp in the absence of any measures for dealing with current detainees. But it also helps explain why the new administration wants to move cautiously, taking time to work out a plan to cope with the complications. Almost half the camp’s remaining detainees are Yemenis, and efforts to repatriate them depend in part on the creation of a Yemeni rehabilitation program — partly financed by the United States — similar to the Saudi one. Saudi Arabia has claimed that no graduate of its program has returned to terrorism. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #7 No graduate of MY program would return to terrorism! i c wut u did thar |
| Posted by: .5MT 2009-01-23 19:32 |
| #6 No graduate of MY program would return to terrorism! |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-01-23 15:44 |
| #5 Saudi Arabia has claimed that no graduate of its program has returned to terrorism. That statement obviously no longer holds, now does it? Saudi Arabia is such a waste of oxygen... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-01-23 11:45 |
| #4 put some chips in the boys like pets get now and lets see where they go after they are released |
| Posted by: rabid whitetail 2009-01-23 10:52 |
| #3 "The emergence of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order President Obama signed Thursday" Actually its not so much as a potential complication as a fatal flaw. |
| Posted by: mhw 2009-01-23 09:43 |
| #2 He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen. "Repentance" didn't take I guess? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-01-23 08:49 |
| #1 Soon he'll have a lot of competition. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-01-23 06:07 |