Freed Gitmo Terrorists Join Al Qaeda In Yemen
As President Obama fulfills his promise of returning America to the "moral high ground" by closing Guantanamo Bay prison, at least a dozen recently freed inmates have rejoined Al Qaeda in Yemen, the country where the Christmas Day airline bomber proudly trained.
With the January 22 deadline to shut down the facility quickly approaching, the administration has released dozens of prisoners to their home nations or to laughable “terrorist rehabilitation” programs in Middle East countries. About 100 are scheduled to be transferred to a vacant state prison in northwestern Illinois in the coming weeks.
Ninety one of the remaining Guantanamo prisoners are from Yemen, a terrorist hotbed and popular Al Qaeda training ground, and many of them could be sent back home. Last month alone six prisoners were returned to Yemen, according to a British newspaper that also reported that at least 12 others recently rejoined Al Qaeda in the southwest Asian country deemed a high security threat by the State Department for is terrorist activities.
At least one powerful Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has joined a group of Republicans to call for a halt of the flawed Yemeni repatriation program. California’s Dianne Feinstein finally had a revelation that the country is “too unstable” after a Yemen-trained terrorist tried to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas. An Al Qaeda wing in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attempt.
Former Guantanamo prisoners returning to their old terrorist ways is hardly earth shattering news. Last year the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency revealed that many of the freed Guantanamo detainees rejoined terrorist missions after leaving the military prison. Many of those who returned to “the fight” graduated from a Saudi rehab program for jihadists, which has instead served as training camp for future terrorists.
Among them is a deputy Al Qaeda leader (Said Ali al-Shihri) in Yemen who organized a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in that country’s capital last year. The renowned Al Qaeda boss was also involved in car bombings outside the American Embassy that killed at least 16 people.