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The Almighty
http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2009-12-29-column29_ST_U.htm?csp=34
"Little noted is the fact that the second in command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula— the group that reportedly trained and deployed Abdulmutallab for his mission to attack the American homeland — is a released Guantanamo detainee: Said Ali al-Shihri.While al-Shihri's specific role has not been determined, it is increasingly clear that the terrorist network he helps lead was behind the attempted Detroit attack.
Known to Guantanamo officials as Detainee No. 372, al-Shihri was captured on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in December 2001. He denied being a terrorist and claimed to have traveled to Afghanistan two weeks after the 9/11 attacks to deliver money for the Red Crescent.At Guantanamo, he told officials that he had never even heard of al-Qaeda until he arrived in Guantanamo, and declared that "Usama bin Laden had no business representing Islam." He promised that if released he would return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, reunite with his family and work in their used furniture store.
Despite evidence that he had trained in an al-Qaeda camp north of Kabul, he was released in 2007 to a Saudi rehabilitation program. But al-Shihri never became a furniture salesman. Instead, last January, he appeared in a series of jihadist videos identified as al-Qaeda's second in command on the Arabian Peninsula. The New York Times reported that he is "suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen's capital, Sanaa," in September 2008."
"Little noted is the fact that the second in command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula— the group that reportedly trained and deployed Abdulmutallab for his mission to attack the American homeland — is a released Guantanamo detainee: Said Ali al-Shihri.While al-Shihri's specific role has not been determined, it is increasingly clear that the terrorist network he helps lead was behind the attempted Detroit attack.
Known to Guantanamo officials as Detainee No. 372, al-Shihri was captured on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in December 2001. He denied being a terrorist and claimed to have traveled to Afghanistan two weeks after the 9/11 attacks to deliver money for the Red Crescent.At Guantanamo, he told officials that he had never even heard of al-Qaeda until he arrived in Guantanamo, and declared that "Usama bin Laden had no business representing Islam." He promised that if released he would return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, reunite with his family and work in their used furniture store.
Despite evidence that he had trained in an al-Qaeda camp north of Kabul, he was released in 2007 to a Saudi rehabilitation program. But al-Shihri never became a furniture salesman. Instead, last January, he appeared in a series of jihadist videos identified as al-Qaeda's second in command on the Arabian Peninsula. The New York Times reported that he is "suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen's capital, Sanaa," in September 2008."