Perfect: Freed Gitmo Detainee Now Al Qaeda Leader

Quick, let's free the rest of them.

More: The NYT suddenly discovers the "complications" of the catch and release program it has long advocated. (Link to Gateway Pundit.)

The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order President Obama signed Thursday that the detention center be shut down within a year.

Potential complications?

The militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sana, in September. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen.

His status was announced in an Internet statement by the militant group and was confirmed by an American counterterrorism official.

“They’re one and the same guy,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity because he was discussing an intelligence analysis. “He returned to Saudi Arabia in 2007, but his movements to Yemen remain unclear.”

The development came as Republican legislators criticized the plan to close the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp in the absence of any measures for dealing with current detainees. But it also helps explain why the new administration wants to move cautiously, taking time to work out a plan to cope with the complications.

To repeat myself yet again, with their boy now in the White House, the liberal MSM is suddenly not only aware that the situation is a bit more complex than the endless repetition of "Chimphitler McHaliburton," but they're really trying to sell this idea to both the general public and Obama's liberal supporters. Hey, don't be too quick to judge! the line now goes. This stuff is really a lot harder than you might think!

Indeed. But under Bush it was all so simple. He just always made he wrong decisions about simple issues.

Gateway recounts other "rehabilitated" terrorists who went on to bomb and kill.

Thanks to CJ.

posted by Ace at 12:12 PM

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