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| Terror Networks |
| Yemen al-Qaeda link to Guantanamo Bay prison |
| 2010-01-14 |
| The failed Detroit airliner bomb attack on Christmas Day awakened the world to the threat from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a group that until then was hardly a household name. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a young Nigerian who allegedly came within an ace of killing almost 300 passengers and crew with a bomb hidden in his underwear, said he had been trained and sent by its leaders. US President Barack Obama's embarrassment and anger at the potentially catastrophic failure of intelligence which allowed Mr Abdulmutallab to board the plane has been compounded by the revelation that two of AQAP's founders, Said al-Shihri and Mohammed al-Awfi, were both former Guantanamo detainees. Several AQAP foot soldiers are also former Guantanamo prisoners. This only confirms the fears of critics vehemently opposed to Mr Obama's promise to close the prison camp by the end of this month. In total, 120 Saudi detainees have been repatriated from Guantanamo. Mr Obama's dilemma is dramatically illustrated by a BBC investigation into what happened to the 14 detainees of Batch 10, who were flown home to Saudi Arabia just over two years ago. The Saudi government's aim was to put them through its controversial de-radicalisation or Care programme, with a view to rehabilitating its "beneficiaries" in society. Of the 120 Saudi returnees, 111 of them have gone through the Care programme - the other nine returned to the Kingdom before the scheme was set up. The government claims a 90% success rate and says that only 10 of the former Guantanamo detainees absconded, crossing the border into Yemen. But Batch 10 certainly does not fit this picture. When the Saudi 747 jet carrying them landed in Riyadh, its passengers were greeted by the authorities not as heroes but as "victims" who had been brainwashed and misled by a deviant ideology. All went through the Care programme, but five later escaped to Yemen. There two of them, al-Shihri and al-Awfi, helped set up AQAP and then took part in the organisation's launch video. |
| Posted by:ed |