WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two men released from the US "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have appeared in a video posted on a jihadist website, the SITE monitoring service reported.
One of the two former inmates, a Saudi man identified as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri, or prisoner number 372, has been elevated to the senior ranks of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, a US counter-terrorism official told AFP.
Three other men appear in the video, including Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi, identified as an Al-Qaeda field commander. SITE later said he was prisoner No. 333.
A Pentagon spokesman, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, on Saturday declined to confirm the SITE information.
"We remain concerned about ex-Guantanamo detainees who have re-affiliated with terrorist organizations after their departure," said Gordon.
"We will continue to work with the international community to mitigate the threat they pose," he said.
On the video, al-Shihri is seen sitting with three other men before a flag of the Islamic State of Iraq, the front for Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
"By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for, and were imprisoned for," al-Shihri was quoted as saying.
Al-Shiri was transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia in 2007, the US counter-terrorism official said.
The other men in the video are identified as Commander Abu Baseer al-Wahayshi and Abu Hureira Qasm al-Rimi (also known as Abu Hureira al-Sana'ani).
The Defense Department has said as many as 61 former Guantanamo detainees -- about 11 percent of 520 detainees transferred from the detention center and released -- are believed to have returned to the fight.
The latest case highlights the risk the new US administration faces as it moves to empty Guantanamo of its remaining 245 prisoners and close the controversial detention camp within a year.
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Snop's Commentary:
This article highlights the dangers of returning Islamists to Yemen where many have been released by the government of Yemen only to return to Jihad. One hundred Yemenis are currently being held in Guantanamo and represent a serious hurdle to making good on President Obama's order to close GITMO in one year. If anything, the closure order will spark the needed public and international debate as to what to do with the current and future detainees-not to mention how to put prosecute them.
Up to now, many assume that the Bush administration was flat wrong in using GITMO as a prison while insisting that military commissions be used to prosecute these fighters that fall outside our Western norms and rules of warfare. I suspect during the following months, we will become acutely aware of the logic behind the Bush administration process and find ourselves with few if any alternatives that can both provide justice and adequately ensure our security. There is a fine balance between both requirements and it is arguable that we went to far after 911, let us hope the correction is not too far the other way.
In the meantime, the move to close GITMO takes away Al Qaeda's ralling call to unite and fight the US because to the supposed mistreatment of "brothers" being detained there. From an ideological warfare perspective demostrating the intent to close GITMO is necessary in order for the US to regain moral legitmacy in the eyes of of our allies and our own people alike.
From Dawn of the Cognetic Age..." [...] we must reorient US grand strategy to create a sustainable and effective strategy needed to win the long war by conducting a thorough risk-versus-return analysis of post-9/11 security policies that apply cognetic thinking. We must ask tough questions to determine whether our policies promote or hinder our ability to maintain the vital support of the American people and our allies for conducting a long war. Our leadership plainly states that we are engaged in such a war, possibly lasting a generation or longer. Our grand strategy must reflect this basic assumption. Therefore, policy objectives must bolster our resolve to continue the struggle, attract the uncommitted to our side, and drain away militants’ resolve to continue the struggle. If our policies support the objectives, we should stay with them; if they do not, we must change them."
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