{"id":8646,"date":"2009-01-23T17:25:21","date_gmt":"2009-01-23T14:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=8646"},"modified":"2014-01-01T20:38:17","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T18:38:17","slug":"freed-by-us-saudi-becomes-a-qaeda-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2009\/01\/23\/freed-by-us-saudi-becomes-a-qaeda-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><\/h1>\n<p><script type=\"text\/JavaScript\">function getSharePasskey() { return 'ex=1390453200&amp;en=eb3134214e65f91b&amp;ei=5124';}<\/script> <script type=\"text\/JavaScript\">\nfunction getShareURL() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/23\/world\/middleeast\/23yemen.html');\n}\nfunction getShareHeadline() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief');\n}\nfunction getShareDescription() { <\/p>\n<p>\treturn encodeURIComponent('The emergence of a former Guant\u00e1namo Bay detainee as leader of Al Qaeda&amp;#8217;s Yemeni branch underscores the potential complications of closing the detention center.');\n}\nfunction getShareKeywords() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('Detainees,Terrorism,Afghanistan War (2001- ),United States Armament and Defense,Yemen,Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba),Saudi Arabia,United States,Al Qaeda,Said Ali al-Shihri');\n}\nfunction getShareSection() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('world');\n}\nfunction getShareSectionDisplay() {<\/p>\n<p>\treturn encodeURIComponent('International \/ Middle East');\n}\nfunction getShareSubSection() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('middleeast');\n}\nfunction getShareByline() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('By ROBERT F. WORTH');\n}\nfunction getSharePubdate() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('January 23, 2009');\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div id=\"toolsRight\"><script>\n\t\t\t&lt;!-- \n\t\t\tfunction submitCCCForm(){\n\t\t\t\tPopUp = window.open('', '_Icon','location=no,toolbar=no,status=no,width=650,height=550,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');\n\t\t\t\tthis.document.cccform.submit();\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/\/ --&gt;\n\t\t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<form action=\"https:\/\/s100.copyright.com\/CommonApp\/LoadingApplication.jsp\"><input name=\"Title\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief\" \/><input name=\"Author\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"By ROBERT F. WORTH\" \/><input name=\"ContentID\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/23\/world\/middleeast\/23yemen.html\" \/><input name=\"FormatType\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"default\" \/><input name=\"PublicationDate\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"JAN 23 2009\" \/><input name=\"PublisherName\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"The New York Times\" \/><input name=\"Publication\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"nytimes.com\" \/><input name=\"wordCount\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"1036\" \/><\/form>\n<div class=\"articleTools\">\n<div class=\"toolsContainer\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">writePost();<\/script><script src=\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/ds\/badge.js\">new_york_times:http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/23\/world\/middleeast\/23yemen.html<\/script><\/p>\n<div id=\"adxToolSponsor\"><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/adx\/bin\/adx_click.html?type=goto&amp;page=www.nytimes.com\/yr\/mo\/day\/world\/middleeast&amp;pos=Frame4A&amp;sn2=8ca84067\/d4c26d2b&amp;sn1=fb2f4fcd\/e8d90d0b&amp;camp=foxsearch2009_emailtools_1011062c_nyt5&amp;ad=NOT_120x60_article_tools_v2_nowplaying&amp;goto=http:\/\/www.foxsearchlight.com\/notorious\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<h1>Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief<\/h1>\n<p><script type=\"text\/JavaScript\">function getSharePasskey() { return 'ex=1390453200&amp;en=eb3134214e65f91b&amp;ei=5124';}<\/script> <script type=\"text\/JavaScript\">\nfunction getShareURL() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/23\/world\/middleeast\/23yemen.html');\n}\nfunction getShareHeadline() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief');\n}\nfunction getShareDescription() { <\/p>\n<p>\treturn encodeURIComponent('The emergence of a former Guant\u00e1namo Bay detainee as leader of Al Qaeda&amp;#8217;s Yemeni branch underscores the potential complications of closing the detention center.');\n}\nfunction getShareKeywords() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('Detainees,Terrorism,Afghanistan War (2001- ),United States Armament and Defense,Yemen,Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba),Saudi Arabia,United States,Al Qaeda,Said Ali al-Shihri');\n}\nfunction getShareSection() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('world');\n}\nfunction getShareSectionDisplay() {<\/p>\n<p>\treturn encodeURIComponent('International \/ Middle East');\n}\nfunction getShareSubSection() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('middleeast');\n}\nfunction getShareByline() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('By ROBERT F. WORTH');\n}\nfunction getSharePubdate() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('January 23, 2009');\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div id=\"toolsRight\"><script>\n\t\t\t&lt;!-- \n\t\t\tfunction submitCCCForm(){\n\t\t\t\tPopUp = window.open('', '_Icon','location=no,toolbar=no,status=no,width=650,height=550,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');\n\t\t\t\tthis.document.cccform.submit();\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/\/ --&gt;\n\t\t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<form action=\"https:\/\/s100.copyright.com\/CommonApp\/LoadingApplication.jsp\"><input name=\"Title\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief\" \/><input name=\"Author\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"By ROBERT F. WORTH\" \/><input name=\"ContentID\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/23\/world\/middleeast\/23yemen.html\" \/><input name=\"FormatType\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"default\" \/><input name=\"PublicationDate\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"JAN 23 2009\" \/><input name=\"PublisherName\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"The New York Times\" \/><input name=\"Publication\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"nytimes.com\" \/><input name=\"wordCount\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"1036\" \/><\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"byline\">By ROBERT F. WORTH<\/div>\n<div class=\"timestamp\">Published: January 22, 2009<\/div>\n<p>BEIRUT, Lebanon \u2014 The emergence of a former Guant\u00e1namo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<div id=\"articleInline\" class=\"inlineLeft\">\n<div id=\"inlineBox\"><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/23\/world\/middleeast\/23yemen.html?_r=1&amp;emc=eta1#secondParagraph\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"sidebarArticles\">\n<h4>Related<\/h4>\n<p>The Guant\u00e1namo Docket: Said Ali al-Shihri<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a name=\"secondParagraph\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>His status was announced in an Internet statement by the militant group and was confirmed by an American counterterrorism official.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re one and the same guy,\u201d said the official, who insisted on anonymity because he was discussing an intelligence analysis. \u201cHe returned to Saudi Arabia in 2007, but his movements to Yemen remain unclear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The development came as Republican legislators criticized the plan to close the Guant\u00e1namo 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.<\/p>\n<p>Almost half the camp\u2019s remaining detainees are Yemenis, and efforts to repatriate them depend in part on the creation of a Yemeni rehabilitation program \u2014 partly financed by the United States \u2014 similar to the Saudi one. Saudi Arabia has claimed that no graduate of its program has returned to terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lesson here is, whoever receives former Guant\u00e1namo detainees needs to keep a close eye on them,\u201d the American official said.<\/p>\n<p>Although the Pentagon has said that dozens of released Guant\u00e1namo detainees have \u201creturned to the fight,\u201d its claim is difficult to document, and has been met with skepticism. In any case, few of the former detainees, if any, are thought to have become leaders of a major terrorist organization like Al Qaeda in Yemen, a mostly homegrown group that experts say has been reinforced by foreign fighters.<\/p>\n<p>Long considered a haven for jihadists, Yemen, a desperately poor country in the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has witnessed a rising number of attacks over the past year. American officials say they suspect that Mr. Shihri may have been involved in the car bombings outside the American Embassy in Sana last September that killed 16 people, including six attackers.<\/p>\n<p>In the Internet statement, Al Qaeda in Yemen identified its new deputy leader as Abu Sayyaf al-Shihri, saying he returned from Guant\u00e1namo to his native Saudi Arabia and then traveled to Yemen \u201cmore than 10 months ago.\u201d That corresponds roughly to the return of Mr. Shihri, a Saudi who was released from Guant\u00e1namo in November 2007. Abu Sayyaf is a nom de guerre, commonly used by jihadists in place of their real name or first name.<\/p>\n<p>A Saudi security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Shihri had disappeared from his home in Saudi Arabia last year after finishing the rehabilitation program.<\/p>\n<p>A Yemeni journalist who interviewed Al Qaeda\u2019s leaders in Yemen last year, Abdulela Shaya, confirmed Thursday that the deputy leader was indeed Mr. Shihri, the former Guant\u00e1namo detainee. Mr. Shaya, in a phone interview, said Mr. Shihri had described to him his journey from Cuba to Yemen and supplied his Guant\u00e1namo detention number, 372. That is the correct number, Pentagon documents show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems certain from all the sources we have that this is the same individual who was released from Guant\u00e1namo in 2007,\u201d said Gregory Johnsen, a terrorism analyst and the editor of a forthcoming book, \u201cIslam and Insurgency in Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Shihri, 35, trained in urban warfare tactics at a camp north of Kabul, Afghanistan, according to documents released by the Pentagon as part of his Guant\u00e1namo dossier. Two weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he traveled to Afghanistan via Bahrain and Pakistan, and he later told American investigators that his intention was to do relief work, the documents say. He was wounded in an airstrike and spent a month and a half recovering in a hospital in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>The documents state that Mr. Shihri met with a group of \u201cextremists\u201d in Iran and helped them get into Afghanistan. They also say he was accused of trying to arrange the assassination of a writer, in accordance with a fatwa, or religious order, issued by an extremist cleric.<\/p>\n<p>However, under a heading describing reasons for Mr. Shihri\u2019s possible release from Guant\u00e1namo, the documents say he claimed that he traveled to Iran \u201cto purchase carpets for his store\u201d in Saudi Arabia. They also say that he denied knowledge of any terrorists or terrorist activities, and that he \u201crelated that if released, he would like to return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, wherein he would reunite with his family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe detainee stated he would attempt to work at his family\u2019s furniture store if it is still in business,\u201d the documents say.<\/p>\n<p>The Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda has carried out a number of terrorist attacks over the past year, culminating in the assault on the American Embassy in Sana on Sept. 16. In that assault, the attackers disguised themselves as Yemeni policemen and detonated two car bombs. The group has also begun releasing sophisticated Internet material, in what appears to be a bid to gain more recruits.<\/p>\n<p>Yemen began cooperating with the United States on counterterrorism activities in late 2001. But the partnership has been a troubled one, with American officials accusing Yemen of paroling dangerous terrorists, including some who were wanted in the United States. Some high-level terrorism suspects have also mysteriously escaped from Yemeni jails. The disagreements and security lapses have complicated efforts to repatriate the 100 or so Yemenis remaining in Guant\u00e1namo.<\/p>\n<p>Despite some notable Yemeni successes in fighting terrorist groups, Al Qaeda in Yemen appears to be gaining strength.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are bringing Saudi fighters in, and they want to start to use Yemen as a base for attacks throughout region, including Saudi Arabia and the Horn of Africa,\u201d said Mr. Johnsen, an expert on Al Qaeda in Yemen.<\/p>\n<div id=\"authorId\">\n<p>Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington; Khalid al-Hammadi from Sana, Yemen; and Muhammad al-Milfy from Beirut.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief By ROBERT F. WORTH Published: January 22, 2009 BEIRUT, Lebanon \u2014 The emergence of a former Guant\u00e1namo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda\u2019s Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order President Obama signed Thursday that the detention center [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":66590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3765],"class_list":["post-8646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-al-qaeda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}