Said Ali al-Shihri [second from left], a former Guantánamo prisoner, pictured with other leaders of Al-Qaeda in Yemen Terror Attempt Hinders Plans to Close Guantánamo
-Peter Baker & Charlie Savage
The attempted bombing of an American passenger plane on Christmas Day could greatly complicate President Obama’s efforts to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as lawmakers in both parties call on the administration to rethink its approach.
The task of determining what to do with the detainees held at Guantánamo has already proved so daunting that Mr. Obama is poised to miss his self-imposed one-year deadline for shuttering the prison by Jan. 22. But evidence that Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen was behind last week’s failed plane attack will make closing the center even harder since nearly half the remaining detainees are from Yemen.
[A] senior official said that sending dozens of Yemenis back home would not be feasible.
[New York Times]
Former Guantanamo Prisoners Rejoin the Fight -Dan McDougall
Al-Qaeda is now back in Yemen in significant numbers and the organization is flourishing. Said Ali al-Shihri [pictured above], a Saudi national, spent six years as a prisoner at Guantanamo. After his release he crossed the border [from Saudi Arabia] into Yemen and began putting into place the building blocks for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the botched suicide bomb attack on a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day.
Last week Pentagon sources admitted that 61 former prisoners at the camp have returned to the battlefield.
Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, believes Yemen has now become the third-largest haven for al-Qaeda.
(Times-UK)
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