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Detainee Returns to Terrorism

Chilling

Former Guantánamo inmate now terrorist leader in Yemen.

cheats/2009/01/23/detainee-returns-to-terrorism/guantanamo-1_crrl5x
Brennan Linsley / AP

Obama signed an executive order yesterday ordering that Guantánamo Bay be closed within a year. The New York Times runs a story today that illustrates the “potential complications” that arise from its closure: Said Ali al-Shihri, a former Guantánamo detainee, is now the deputy leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Al-Shihri was released to Saudi Arabia and went through a rehabilitation program for former jihadists, before emerging in Yemen. The Pentagon claims that several former detainees have returned to terrorism, although al-Shihri is the only one known to have risen to a leadership position.

Read it at The New York Times