We SHould Have Just Brought Them To New York. . .

Counterterrorismblog:

Al-Qaida Confirms "Martyrdom" of Former Guantanamo Detainee in Yemen
By Evan Kohlmann

Al-Qaida's network in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen) has released the audio-recorded wills of two mujahideen operatives who were recently "martyred" in clashes with local security forces -- including former Guantanamo Bay detainee #114 Yusuf Muhammad Mubarak al-Jebairy al-Shehri. The younger brother of a senior Al-Qaida member, al-Shehri first left his home in Saudi Arabia in mid-2001 in order to wage jihad alongside the Taliban because he "thought that participating in jihad with the Taliban was the right thing to do... the Taliban were good Muslims.” In the midst of fleeing the crumbling Taliban frontline in late 2001, Yusuf al-Shehri was captured and sent as an Al-Qaida detainee to Guantanamo Bay.

During Yusuf al-Shehri’s eventual hearings before an administrative review panel, several major factors weighed heavily against his release from Guantanamo. According to the Pentagon, a “foreign government service” not only classified him as a “high priority target” among those held in Guantanamo, but in fact, had pegged him at the fourth-top slot on their list. Throughout his questioning and interrogation by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, “when the detainee has been confronted with his inconsistencies and lies, he has flatly refused to cooperate or has told more lies. The detainee advised that the FBI, the United States, and the interrogators are the enemy.” According to al-Shehri’s case file maintained by the Pentagon: “The detainee stated he considers all Americans his enemy. The detainee decided that he hates all Americans because they attack his religion, Islam. Since Americans are the detainee's enemy, he will continue to fight them until he dies. The detainee pointed to the sky and told the interviewing agents that he will have a meeting with them in the next life… The detainee cannot understand why the detainees are held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with no trial. The detainee has come to believe the reason is that America wants to destroy Islam.” Yet, despite these disturbing charges in his case file, Yusuf al-Shehri was nonetheless released by the U.S. military from detention in Guantanamo Bay on November 9, 2007, and delivered into the custody of local security forces in Saudi Arabia. It is not known when, how, or why al-Shehri was able to escape his Saudi captors and travel to Yemen.