Feds “Concerned” About Freed Gitmo Terrorists In Yemen

The human rights advocates and U.S. officials that fought to free suspected terrorists from American custody should take note that a number of high-ranking Al Qaeda militants in Yemen were released from the military prison at Guantanamo.

Last week some of them may have been involved in a sophisticated scheme to send bombs on a U.S.-bound cargo plane. The elaborate bombs contained particularly lethal explosives, known as pentaerythritol tetranitrate or PETN, that can be easily concealed or disguised. In this case the goods were stuffed in the toner cartridge and casing of computer printers and linked to an electrical circuit with a mobile phone that served as a detonator.

Thankfully, the plot was foiled but the point is that some of the perpetrators were likely among those the U.S. released to a bogus Saudi Arabian “rehabilitation” program for jihadists. Dozens of freed Guantanamo detainees have rejoined Al Qaeda in Yemen, the country where the 2009 Christmas Day airline bomber proudly trained, and many have graduated from the comical Saudi rehab program, which has instead served as training camp for future terrorists.

Last year the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency confirmed that many former Guantanamo detainees rejoin terrorist missions throughout the Middle Ease after leaving the military prison. 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.

On the heels of last week’s foiled Yemen bomb plot, U.S. officials claim to be “concerned” that a number of high-ranking Al Qaeda militants in that hotbed of terrorism are in fact Guantanamo alums. They include the group’s No. 2 leader, Said Shihri, captured by the U.S. in Afghanistan in 2001 and released from Guantanamo six years later, according to a story published by a major newspaper chain.

Also busy planning a deadly U.S. attack is one-time Guantanamo inmate Uthman Ghamdi, released from the military compound in 2006 despite his close ties to a renowned cleric (Anwar Awlaki) who is an Al Qaeda strategist in Yemen. Another high-profile Gitmo prisoner (Jabir Jubran Fayfi) that went through terrorist rehab in Saudi Arabia joined Al Qaeda in 2006.