Rehabilitated Saudi Al-Qaeda Reappear in New Yemeni Terror Organization
Two Saudis featured in a Yemeni Al Qaeda propaganda video were previously held at Guantanamo Bay. They went through the Kingdom’s rehabilitation program which features art therapy. DOD estimates detainees released thus far have a ten percent recidivism rate , with 61 of over 500 returned to the battlefield. New York Times identified the Saudis as Said Ali al Shihri and Mohamed Atiq Awayd al-Harbi.
Yemen’s president announced that the US will repatriate 94 Yemeni detainees within three months. Yemen is building a rehab center, and the FBI this week delivered a half million dollars worth of biometric collection equipment including mobile fingerprint sets. US Ambassador to Yemen, Steven Seche noted this week on America. gov, “The Yemeni government legitimately can cite capacity issues that hinder its effectiveness against terrorists.”
Remarking on the status of the Yemenis at Guantanamo, Seche said, “Except in the case perhaps of some very hard-core elements, we believe that the majority of these detainees can be put productively into a … reintegration program with the goal over time of enabling them to find a way back into Yemeni society without posing a security risk.”
Yemen has a troubling history of placating al Qaeda operatives, a history which includes early releases of convicted terrorists, multiple escapes, deal making with the terror group, and outright lying to the US on the status of al Qaeda operatives. In 2000, the USS Cole was attacked in Aden port killing 17 US sailors and sixteen were killed in a terror assault on the US Embassy in Sana’a last September.
In the face of Saudi Arabia’s success against the al Qaeda organization, many Saudi operatives have fled to the more hospitable climate in Yemen joining others who recently arrived from Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan. Al Qaeda in Yemen announced its merger with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Qaeda organization to form Al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula (AQAP). The announcement came in its latest release of the online journal “Echo of Epics”.
Al-Qaeda in Yemen leader, Nassir al-Wahishi, heads AQAP. Wahishi was formerly the personal secretary to Usama bin Laden. He was extradited by Iran to Yemen in 2003. AQAP’s second in command, Said Ali al Shihri, was released from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia in November 2007. Said al Shihri was accused in DOD documents of meeting extremists in Mashad, Iran, providing passports and briefing them on how to enter Afghanistan. Al-Shihiri is accused of participating in the bombing of the US embassy in September 2008. Wahishi’s former lieutenant, Qasim al-Reimi, does not appear in the video and his position in the new organization is undefined.
AQAP will construct training camps In Yemen for fighters who wish to join the jihad in the Gaza Strip according to its propaganda. Gaza has also been the topic of propaganda statements issued this month by Usama bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri, Yeyah al Libi, the Taliban and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The motto of AQAP is, “From here we start and in Aqsa we meet!”
Yemen’s President, Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh, has focused considerable efforts on strengthening Hamas. Saleh ordered all public employees to donate one day’s salary from to Gaza and called for the activation of the Arab Joint Defense Agreement against Israel on January 20 during a summit in Kuwait.
Yemen is a main supplier of weapons to jihaddist groups throughout the region, and Israel said that Yemen smuggles weapons to Hamas through Sudan and Egypt. Yemen will host Hamas leader Khalid Mishaal on Tuesday. Hamas maintains an office in Yemen with strong support from the Yemeni government.
On January 17, Yemen’s Naba News, a quasi-governmental mouthpiece, announced that Yemen had opened its first camp to receive foreigners to train for jihad in Gaza. The would-be jihaddists will be received at al Iman University, headed by Sheik Abdulmajid al Zindani, designated by the UN’s 1267 committee as a terrorist financier and by the US Treasury as a spiritual advisor to Usama bin Laden. An al Iman spokesman later denied a training camp was on the premises.
Zindani is a strong ally to Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of Yemen. The US has alleged that al Iman University is a recruiting and training center for al Qaeda operatives. Its alumni include American John Walker Lindh and French convert Willie Brigitte. Within Yemen, allegations within Yemen have centered on the proximity of a military camp to al Iman. The camp is run by Field Marshal Saleh’s half brother, Ali Mohsen al Ahmar, a recruiter for bin Laden in the 1980’s.
