Monday, January 26, 2009

Two more ex-Gitmo inmates return to jihad

Jihad Watch

This shouldn't surprise anyone, since nothing has been done over the years at Guantanamo to disabuse inmates of their beliefs about the responsibility of Muslims to wage war against and subjugate unbelievers. The prevailing PC "Islam Is A Religion of Peace" line prevents that -- and makes for this recidivism. Indeed, the exaggerated respect that Guantanamo personnel have been directed to show towards the Qur'an -- handling it with gloves, etc. -- only reinforces the jihadist sentiments of the inmates, rather than win hearts and minds. But none of this, of course, is any part of Obama's calculation as he moves to close Gitmo. The prospect of major jihad terror attacks by former Gitmo inmates does not deter him, and even if one happens, he will most likely not regret what he is doing, because clearly in this his priority is not national security.

Gitmo Recidivism Update. "Two ex-Guantanamo inmates appear in Al-Qaeda video," from AFP, January 24 (thanks to Pamela):

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....

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